U.S. patent number 10,379,988 [Application Number 14/107,102] was granted by the patent office on 2019-08-13 for systems and methods for performance monitoring.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Commvault Systems, Inc.. The grantee listed for this patent is CommVault Systems, Inc.. Invention is credited to Jaidev Oppath Kochunni, Rajiv Kottomtharayil, Manoj Kumar Vijayan.
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United States Patent |
10,379,988 |
Kochunni , et al. |
August 13, 2019 |
Systems and methods for performance monitoring
Abstract
Data storage systems monitor the performance of data storage
operations on a granular level and compile the information for
presenting to a user. The system measures the time of execution for
individual granular stages of the storage operation and in response
to the monitoring results, automatically adjust parameters to
optimize performance. Further, the system performs a performance
test by simulating the data storage operation, but may not actually
write the data to the secondary storage medium.
Inventors: |
Kochunni; Jaidev Oppath
(Eatontown, NJ), Kottomtharayil; Rajiv (Marlboro, NJ),
Vijayan; Manoj Kumar (Marlboro, NJ) |
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
CommVault Systems, Inc. |
Oceanport |
NJ |
US |
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Assignee: |
Commvault Systems, Inc. (Tinton
Falls, NJ)
|
Family
ID: |
50975654 |
Appl.
No.: |
14/107,102 |
Filed: |
December 16, 2013 |
Prior Publication Data
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Document
Identifier |
Publication Date |
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US 20140180664 A1 |
Jun 26, 2014 |
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Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
Issue Date |
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61740859 |
Dec 21, 2012 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F
11/3442 (20130101); G06F 11/1448 (20130101); G06F
11/3461 (20130101); G06F 2201/815 (20130101); G06F
11/3485 (20130101); G06F 2201/84 (20130101); Y10S
707/99955 (20130101); G06F 11/3419 (20130101); G06F
3/061 (20130101); G06F 11/1451 (20130101); G06F
11/2097 (20130101); G06F 11/1469 (20130101); G06F
11/1458 (20130101); G06F 11/2056 (20130101); Y10S
707/99932 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
G06F
11/14 (20060101); G06F 11/34 (20060101); G06F
3/06 (20060101); G06F 11/20 (20060101) |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
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Apr 1999 |
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WO |
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WO 2005/055093 |
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Jun 2005 |
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WO |
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Primary Examiner: Gebresilassie; Kibrom K
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Knobbe, Martens, Olson & Bear,
LLP
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A method to monitor performance of steps of a data storage
operation in a data management system, the method comprising:
receiving, with at least one computing device comprising computer
hardware, an instruction to simulate a data backup operation on a
data set, the data backup operation comprising a plurality of steps
including at least a scan step, a setup pipeline step, a send step,
and a write step, wherein each of the scan step, the setup pipeline
step, the send step, and the write step has at least one adjustable
parameter; for each of the scan step, the setup pipeline step, the
send step, and the write step: executing a plurality of iterative
simulations with the computer hardware, adjusting the at least one
adjustable parameter in each iterative simulation of the plurality
of iterative simulations, and measuring the execution times of the
plurality of iterative simulations; wherein adjusting the at least
one adjustable parameter is based at least in part on an execution
time of a previous iterative simulation; storing the execution
times of the plurality of iterative simulations in a storage
management database; comparing, with the computer hardware, the
execution times of the plurality of iterative simulations stored in
the storage management database to determine a minimum execution
time of the execution times; and identifying, with the computer
hardware, at least one adjusted parameter associated with the
minimum execution time to provide identified parameters; and
saving, with the computer hardware, the identified parameters
associated with each of the scan step, the setup pipeline step, the
send step, and the write step as default parameters for the data
backup operation.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the default parameters minimize an
overall execution time of the data backup operation.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the default parameters are saved
for later performance of a non-simulated data backup operation.
4. The method of claim 1 further comprising displaying, with the
computer hardware, the execution times on a graphical user
interface (GUI).
5. The method of claim 1 wherein the data backup operation
comprises one or more of a full backup operation, a differential
backup operation, an incremental backup operation, and a mirror
backup operation.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein the data set comprises one or more
of files, volumes, databases, and sub-clients.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein the setup pipeline step comprises
setting up a pipeline and wherein the send step comprises sending
the at least a portion of the data set through the pipeline to form
the simulated backup data.
8. A system to monitor performance of steps of a data storage
operation in a data management system, the system comprising: a
first computing device comprising computer hardware configured to
receive an instruction to simulate a data backup operation on a
data set, the data backup operation comprising a plurality of steps
including at least a scan step, a setup pipeline step, a send step,
and a write step, wherein each of the scan step, the setup pipeline
step, the send step, and the write step has at least one adjustable
parameter; for each of the scan step, the setup pipeline step, the
send step, and the write step: the computer hardware configured to
execute a plurality of iterative simulations, the first computing
device configured to adjust the at least one adjustable parameter
in each iterative simulation of the plurality of iterative
simulations, and measure execution times of plurality of iterative
simulations; the first computing device further configured to
adjust the at least one adjustable parameter based at least in part
on an execution time of a previous iterative simulation; the first
computing device further configured to store the execution times of
the plurality of iterative simulations in the a storage management
database; the first computing device further configured to compare
the execution times of the plurality of iterative simulations
stored in the storage management database to determine a minimum
execution time of the execution times; and the first computing
device further configured to identify at least one adjusted
parameter associated with the minimum execution time to provide
identified parameters; and the first computing device further
configured to save the identified parameters associated with each
of the scan step, the setup pipeline step, the send step, and the
write step as default parameters for the data backup operation.
9. The system of claim 8 wherein the default parameters minimize an
overall execution time of the data backup operation.
10. The system of claim 8 wherein the default parameters are saved
for later performance of a non-simulated data backup operation.
11. The system of claim 8 wherein the first computing device is
further configured to display the execution times on a graphical
user interface (GUI).
12. The system of claim 8 wherein the data backup operation
comprises one or more of a full backup operation, a differential
backup operation, an incremental backup operation, and a mirror
backup operation.
13. The system of claim 8 wherein the data set comprises one or
more of files, volumes, databases, and sub-clients.
14. The system of claim 8 wherein the setup pipeline step comprises
setting up a pipeline and wherein the send step comprises sending
the at least a portion of the data set through the pipeline to form
the simulated backup data.
Description
INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE TO ANY PRIORITY APPLICATIONS
Any and all applications for which a foreign or domestic priority
claim is identified in the Application Data Sheet as filed with the
present application are hereby incorporated by reference under 37
CFR 1.57.
BACKGROUND
Businesses worldwide recognize the commercial value of their data
and seek reliable, cost-effective ways to protect the information
stored on their computer networks while minimizing impact on
productivity. Protecting information is often part of a routine
process that is performed within an organization.
A company might back up critical computing systems such as
databases, file servers, web servers, and so on as part of a daily,
weekly, or monthly maintenance schedule. The company may similarly
protect computing systems used by each of its employees, such as
those used by an accounting department, marketing department,
engineering department, and so forth.
Given the rapidly expanding volume of data under management,
companies also continue to seek innovative techniques for managing
data growth, in addition to protecting data. For instance,
companies often implement migration techniques for moving data to
lower cost storage over time and data reduction techniques for
reducing redundant data, pruning lower priority data, etc.
Enterprises also increasingly view their stored data as a valuable
asset. Along these lines, customers are looking for solutions that
not only protect and manage, but also leverage their data. For
instance, solutions providing data analysis capabilities, improved
data presentation and access features, and the like, are in
increasing demand.
SUMMARY
Certain systems and methods provided herein provide granular
performance metrics for data storage operations and can, as an
example, provide visibility into execution times for the
individual, constituent steps of the data storage operation.
Moreover, certain configurations can also simulate data storage
operations or portions thereof (e.g., writing of data to secondary
storage) and/or automatically calibrate storage operations based on
monitored performance information. Thus, systems and methods are
described herein for simulating data storage operations, monitoring
and reporting performance metrics on a granular level, and
automatically calibrating storage operations using measured
performance information.
Certain embodiments relate to a method to monitor performance of
steps of a data storage operation in a data management system. The
method comprises receiving with computer hardware an instruction to
simulate a data storage operation on a data set, where the data
storage operation comprises a plurality of steps, automatically
simulating with the computer hardware one step of the plurality of
steps using at least a portion of the data set to provide a
simulated step of the data storage operation, automatically
measuring with the computer hardware an execution time of the
simulated step, and automatically adjusting with the computer
hardware one or more parameters associated with the one step of the
data storage operation based at least in part on the execution time
of the simulated step.
In an embodiment, the method further comprises iteratively
adjusting with the computer hardware settings associated with the
one step of the plurality of steps to provide a plurality of
different settings, and iteratively performing and measuring the
execution times with the computer hardware of the one step with the
plurality of different settings to provide a plurality of
iterations. In another embodiment, the method further comprises
comparing with the computer hardware the execution times of the
plurality of iterations. In a further embodiment, method further
comprises identifying with the computer hardware the different
setting of the plurality of different settings that optimizes the
data storage operation to provide a default setting. In a yet
further embodiment, the default setting minimizes an overall
execution time of the data storage operation.
In an embodiment, method further comprises saving with the computer
hardware the default setting for later performance of a
non-simulated data storage operation. In another embodiment, the
method further comprises displaying with the computer hardware the
execution time on a graphical user interface (GUI). In a further
embodiment, the data storage operation comprises one or more of a
backup operation, a full backup operation, a differential backup
operation, an incremental backup operation, a mirror backup
operation, a restore operation, an archive operation, a
hierarchical storage management operation, a snapshot operation,
and a replication operation. In a yet further embodiment, the data
set comprises one or more of files, volumes, databases, and
sub-clients.
In an embodiment, the data storage operation comprises a data
backup operation and the plurality of steps comprise scanning the
at least a portion of the data set, setting up a pipeline, sending
the at least a portion of the data set through the pipeline to form
backup data, and writing the backup data. In another embodiment,
writing the backup data comprises one of copying the backup data to
a buffer data structure, performing no operation instructions
(NOPs), and copying the backup data to a secondary storage
device.
According to certain embodiments, a system to monitor performance
of steps of a data storage operation in a data management system is
disclosed. The system comprises an information manager comprising
computer hardware and configured to receive an instruction to
simulate a data storage operation on a data set, the data storage
operation comprising a plurality of steps. The information manager
is further configured to automatically simulate one step of the
plurality of steps using at least a portion of the data set to
provide a simulated step of the data storage operation. The
information manager is further configured to automatically measure
an execution time of the simulated step, and the information
manager is further configured to automatically adjust one or more
parameters associated with the one step of the data storage
operation based at least in part on the execution time of the
simulated step.
Certain embodiments relate to a system to monitor performance of
stages of a data storage operation in a data management system. The
system comprises an information manager comprising computer
hardware and configured to receive an instruction to simulate a
backup operation on a data set to provide a simulated backup
operation, and a data agent comprising computer hardware and
configured to automatically scan at least a portion of the data set
to form scanned data for the simulated backup operation. The
information manager is further configured to automatically measure
an execution time of the scan to create a scan time. The system
further comprises a media agent comprising computer hardware and
configured to automatically setup a pipeline for the simulated
backup operation, where the information manager is further
configured to automatically measure an execution time of the setup
of the pipeline to create a setup time. The data agent is further
configured to automatically send the scanned data through the
pipeline to provide backup data for the simulated backup operation,
and the information manager is further configured to automatically
measure an execution time of the send to create a send time. The
media agent is further configured to automatically write the backup
data for the simulated backup operation, and the information
storage manager is further configured to automatically measure an
execution time of the write to provide a write time. The
information manager is further configured to automatically adjust
one or more parameters associated with at least one of the scan,
setup, send, and write based at least in part on at least one of
the scan time, the setup time, the send time, and the write
time.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1A is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary information
management system.
FIG. 1B is a detailed view of a primary storage device, a secondary
storage device, and some examples of primary data and data storage
data.
FIG. 1C is a block diagram of an exemplary information management
system including a storage manager, one or more data agents, and
one or more media agents.
FIG. 1D is a block diagram illustrating a scalable information
management system.
FIG. 1E illustrates certain data storage operations according to an
exemplary storage policy.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating another example information
management cell.
FIG. 3 illustrates a flow chart of an exemplary embodiment of a
process to simulate a data storage operation for performance
monitoring. The process is usable by the system of FIG. 2.
FIG. 4 illustrates a flow chart of an exemplary embodiment of a
process to automatically optimize data storage operation
performance. The process is usable by the system of FIG. 2.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
Information Management System Overview
Previously, performance metrics associated with backup/restore
operations were typically available only on a job basis, where a
measurement was provided of the time from the beginning to the end
of an entire backup/restore operation. According to certain
embodiments described herein, a data storage system generates
performance metrics for data storage operations on a granular
basis, where execution times or other metrics are provided for
individual steps that make up the data storage operation. The
granular approach can be useful to troubleshoot problems, such as
for understanding which operational steps were slowing down the
overall execution time of the data storage operation.
Moreover, in certain embodiments, systems and methods are disclosed
for simulating data storage operations or portions thereof and
reporting performance metrics for the simulated data storage
operations, e.g., on a granular level. Advantageously, the granular
performance metrics provide information usable to improve data
storage operations. For example, knowledge of the execution times
of individual steps in the simulated data storage operation can
provide insight as to where bottlenecks are occurring.
Additionally, providing metrics related to simulated storage
operations and/or constituent steps can provide a number of
advantages. As one example, by providing metrics on simulated
storage operations, the system can allow administrators to simulate
the effects of adding different types and/or amounts of additional
secondary storage media to a system, without having to actually
implement the secondary storage media. In this manner, users can
save costs by understanding storage capacity requirements without
having to implement costly storage, by determining which type of
data storage media is best suited for the particular situation, and
the like. In some embodiments the results can be compiled for
presentation to a user.
In an embodiment, the system performs a performance test of a data
storage operation, such as a backup, a restore, or other data
storage operation, by simulating the data storage operation. The
system performs the storage operation steps and measures the
execution times of each step, but does not write the data to a
secondary storage medium. The performance test metrics comprise the
execution times of the individual steps, which can be presented to
the user through a graphical user interface (GUI) or the like.
In some embodiments, the system can also automatically calibrate
data storage operation by iteratively simulating or otherwise
performing the operation and adjusting certain parameters
associated with the operation at each iteration. The system
monitors performance at each iteration and selects a desired set of
parameter settings based on the performance. For example, execution
times or other performance metrics associated with different
parameter settings/options for the data storage operation are
compared, and the system automatically adjusts storage operation
parameters to improve storage operation performance. Further
examples of systems and methods for simulating data storage
operations, granularly measuring performance metrics, and
automatically calibrating storage operations are described below,
with respect to FIGS. 2-4.
With the increasing importance of protecting and leveraging data,
organizations simply cannot afford to take the risk of losing
critical data. Moreover, runaway data growth and other modern
realities make protecting and managing data an increasingly
difficult task. There is therefore a need for efficient, powerful,
and user-friendly solutions for protecting and managing data.
Depending on the size of the organization, there are typically many
data production sources which are under the purview of tens,
hundreds, or even thousands of employees or other individuals. In
the past, individual employees were sometimes responsible for
managing and protecting their data. A patchwork of hardware and
software point solutions has been applied in other cases. These
solutions were often provided by different vendors and had limited
or no interoperability.
Certain embodiments described herein provide systems and methods
capable of addressing these and other shortcomings of prior
approaches by implementing unified, organization-wide information
management. FIG. 1A shows one such information management system
100, which generally includes combinations of hardware and software
configured to protect and manage data and metadata generated and
used by the various computing devices in the information management
system 100.
The organization which employs the information management system
100 may be a corporation or other business entity, non-profit
organization, educational institution, household, governmental
agency, or the like.
Generally, the systems and associated components described herein
may be compatible with and/or provide some or all of the
functionality of the systems and corresponding components described
in one or more of the following U.S. patents and patent application
publications assigned to CommVault Systems, Inc., each of which is
hereby incorporated in its entirety by reference herein: U.S. Pat.
Pub. No. 2010/0332456, entitled DATA OBJECT STORE AND SERVER FOR A
CLOUD STORAGE ENVIRONMENT, INCLUDING DATA DEDUPLICATION AND DATA
MANAGEMENT ACROSS MULTIPLE CLOUD STORAGE SITES''; U.S. Pat. No.
7,035,880, entitled "MODULAR BACKUP AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEM USED IN
CONJUNCTION WITH A STORAGE AREA NETWORK"; U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453,
entitled "HIERARCHICAL SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING A UNIFIED
VIEW OF STORAGE INFORMATION"; U.S. Pat. No. 7,395,282, entitled
"HIERARCHICAL BACKUP AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEM"; U.S. Pat. No.
7,246,207, entitled "SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DYNAMICALLY PERFORMING
STORAGE OPERATIONS IN A COMPUTER NETWORK"; U.S. Pat. No. 7,747,579,
entitled "METABASE FOR FACILITATING DATA CLASSIFICATION"; U.S. Pat.
No. 8,229,954, entitled "MANAGING COPIES OF DATA"; U.S. Pat. No.
7,617,262, entitled "SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR MONITORING APPLICATION
DATA IN A DATA REPLICATION SYSTEM"; U.S. Pat. No. 7,529,782,
entitled "SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR PERFORMING A SNAPSHOT AND FOR
RESTORING DATA"; U.S. Pat. No. 8,230,195, entitled "SYSTEM AND
METHOD FOR PERFORMING AUXILIARY STORAGE OPERATIONS"; U.S. Pat. Pub.
No. 2012/0084268, entitled "CONTENT-ALIGNED, BLOCK-BASED
DEDUPLICATION"; U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2006/0224846, entitled "SYSTEM
AND METHOD TO SUPPORT SINGLE INSTANCE STORAGE OPERATIONS"; U.S.
Pat. Pub. No. 2009/0329534, entitled "APPLICATION-AWARE AND REMOTE
SINGLE INSTANCE DATA MANAGEMENT"; U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2012/0150826,
entitled "DISTRIBUTED DEDUPLICATED STORAGE SYSTEM"; U.S. Pat. Pub.
No. 2012/0150818, entitled "CLIENT-SIDE REPOSITORY IN A NETWORKED
DEDUPLICATED STORAGE SYSTEM"; U.S. Pat. No. 8,170,995, entitled
"METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR OFFLINE INDEXING OF CONTENT AND CLASSIFYING
STORED DATA"; and U.S. Pat. No. 8,156,086, entitled "SYSTEMS AND
METHODS FOR STORED DATA VERIFICATION".
The illustrated information management system 100 includes one or
more client computing device 102 having at least one application
110 executing thereon, and one or more primary storage devices 104
storing primary data 112. The client computing device(s) 102 and
the primary storage devices 104 may generally be referred to in
some cases as a primary storage subsystem 117.
Depending on the context, the term "information management system"
can refer to generally all of the illustrated hardware and software
components. Or, in other instances, the term may refer to only a
subset of the illustrated components.
For instance, in some cases information management system 100
generally refers to a combination of specialized components used to
protect, move, manage, manipulate and/or process data and metadata
generated by the client computing devices 102. However, the term
may generally not refer to the underlying components that generate
and/or store the primary data 112, such as the client computing
devices 102 themselves, the applications 110 and operating system
residing on the client computing devices 102, and the primary
storage devices 104.
As an example, "information management system" may sometimes refer
only to one or more of the following components and corresponding
data structures: storage managers, data agents, and media agents.
These components will be described in further detail below.
Client Computing Devices
There are typically a variety of sources in an organization that
produce data to be protected and managed. As just one illustrative
example, in a corporate environment such data sources can be
employee workstations and company servers such as a mail server, a
web server, or the like. In the information management system 100,
the data generation sources include the one or more client
computing devices 102.
The client computing devices 102 may include, without limitation,
one or more: workstations, personal computers, desktop computers,
or other types of generally fixed computing systems such as
mainframe computers and minicomputers.
The client computing devices 102 can also include mobile or
portable computing devices, such as one or more laptops, tablet
computers, personal data assistants, mobile phones (such as
smartphones), and other mobile or portable computing devices such
as embedded computers, set top boxes, vehicle-mounted devices,
wearable computers, etc.
In some cases, each client computing device 102 is associated with
one or more users and/or corresponding user accounts, of employees
or other individuals.
The term "client computing device" is used herein because the
information management system 100 generally "serves" the data
management and protection needs for the data generated by the
client computing devices 102. However, the use of this term does
not imply that the client computing devices 102 cannot be "servers"
in other respects. For instance, a particular client computing
device 102 may act as a server with respect to other devices, such
as other client computing devices 102. As just a few examples, the
client computing devices 102 can include mail servers, file
servers, database servers, and web servers.
The client computing devices 102 may additionally include
virtualized and/or cloud computing resources. For instance, one or
more virtual machines may be provided to the organization by a
third-party cloud service vendor. Or, in some embodiments, the
client computing devices 102 include one or more virtual machine(s)
running on a virtual machine host computing device operated by the
organization. As one example, the organization may use one virtual
machine as a database server and another virtual machine as a mail
server. A virtual machine manager (VMM) (e.g., a Hypervisor) may
manage the virtual machines, and reside and execute on the virtual
machine host computing device.
Each client computing device 102 may have one or more applications
110 (e.g., software applications) executing thereon which generate
and manipulate the data that is to be protected from loss.
The applications 110 generally facilitate the operations of an
organization (or multiple affiliated organizations), and can
include, without limitation, mail server applications (e.g.,
Microsoft Exchange Server), file server applications, mail client
applications (e.g., Microsoft Exchange Client), database
applications (e.g., SQL, Oracle, SAP, Lotus Notes Database), word
processing applications (e.g., Microsoft Word), spreadsheet
applications, financial applications, presentation applications,
browser applications, mobile applications, entertainment
applications, and so on.
The applications 110 can include at least one operating system
(e.g., Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, IBM z/OS, Linux, other
Unix-based operating systems, etc.), which may support one or more
file systems and host the other applications 110.
As shown, the client computing devices 102 and other components in
the information management system 100 can be connected to one
another via one or more communication pathways 114. The
communication pathways 114 can include one or more networks or
other connection types including as any of following, without
limitation: the Internet, a wide area network (WAN), a local area
network (LAN), a Storage Area Network (SAN), a Fibre Channel
connection, a Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) connection, a
virtual private network (VPN), a token ring or TCP/IP based
network, an intranet network, a point-to-point link, a cellular
network, a wireless data transmission system, a two-way cable
system, an interactive kiosk network, a satellite network, a
broadband network, a baseband network, other appropriate wired,
wireless, or partially wired/wireless computer or
telecommunications networks, combinations of the same or the like.
The communication pathways 114 in some cases may also include
application programming interfaces (APIs) including, e.g., cloud
service provider APIs, virtual machine management APIs, and hosted
service provider APIs.
Primary Data and Exemplary Primary Storage Devices
Primary data 112 according to some embodiments is production data
or other "live" data generated by the operating system and other
applications 110 residing on a client computing device 102. The
primary data 112 is stored on the primary storage device(s) 104 and
is organized via a file system supported by the client computing
device 102. For instance, the client computing device(s) 102 and
corresponding applications 110 may create, access, modify, write,
delete, and otherwise use primary data 112.
Primary data 112 is generally in the native format of the source
application 110. According to certain aspects, primary data 112 is
an initial or first (e.g., created before any other copies or
before at least one other copy) stored copy of data generated by
the source application 110. Primary data 112 in some cases is
created substantially directly from data generated by the
corresponding source applications 110.
The primary data 112 may sometimes be referred to as a "primary
copy" in the sense that it is a discrete set of data. However, the
use of this term does not necessarily imply that the "primary copy"
is a copy in the sense that it was copied or otherwise derived from
another stored version.
The primary storage devices 104 storing the primary data 112 may be
relatively fast and/or expensive (e.g., a disk drive, a hard-disk
array, solid state memory, etc.). In addition, primary data 112 may
be intended for relatively short term retention (e.g., several
hours, days, or weeks).
According to some embodiments, the client computing device 102 can
access primary data 112 from the primary storage device 104 by
making conventional file system calls via the operating system.
Primary data 112 representing files may include structured data
(e.g., database files), unstructured data (e.g., documents), and/or
semi-structured data. Some specific examples are described below
with respect to FIG. 1B.
It can be useful in performing certain tasks to break the primary
data 112 up into units of different granularities. In general,
primary data 112 can include files, directories, file system
volumes, data blocks, extents, or any other types or granularities
of data objects. As used herein, a "data object" can refer to both
(1) any file that is currently addressable by a file system or that
was previously addressable by the file system (e.g., an archive
file) and (2) a subset of such a file.
As will be described in further detail, it can also be useful in
performing certain functions of the information management system
100 to access and modify metadata within the primary data 112.
Metadata generally includes information about data objects or
characteristics associated with the data objects.
Metadata can include, without limitation, one or more of the
following: the data owner (e.g., the client or user that generates
the data), the last modified time (e.g., the time of the most
recent modification of the data object), a data object name (e.g.,
a file name), a data object size (e.g., a number of bytes of data),
information about the content (e.g., an indication as to the
existence of a particular search term), to/from information for
email (e.g., an email sender, recipient, etc.), creation date, file
type (e.g., format or application type), last accessed time,
application type (e.g., type of application that generated the data
object), location/network (e.g., a current, past or future location
of the data object and network pathways to/from the data object),
frequency of change (e.g., a period in which the data object is
modified), business unit (e.g., a group or department that
generates, manages or is otherwise associated with the data
object), and aging information (e.g., a schedule, such as a time
period, in which the data object is migrated to secondary or long
term storage), boot sectors, partition layouts, file location
within a file folder directory structure, user permissions, owners,
groups, access control lists [ACLS]), system metadata (e.g.,
registry information), combinations of the same or the like.
In addition to metadata generated by or related to file systems and
operating systems, some of the applications 110 maintain indices of
metadata for data objects, e.g., metadata associated with
individual email messages. Thus, each data object may be associated
with corresponding metadata. The use of metadata to perform
classification and other functions is described in greater detail
below.
Each of the client computing devices 102 are associated with and/or
in communication with one or more of the primary storage devices
104 storing corresponding primary data 112. A client computing
device 102 may be considered to be "associated with" or "in
communication with" a primary storage device 104 if it is capable
of one or more of: storing data to the primary storage device 104,
retrieving data from the primary storage device 104, and modifying
data retrieved from a primary storage device 104.
The primary storage devices 104 can include, without limitation,
disk drives, hard-disk arrays, semiconductor memory (e.g., solid
state drives), and network attached storage (NAS) devices. In some
cases, the primary storage devices 104 form part of a distributed
file system. The primary storage devices 104 may have relatively
fast I/O times and/or are relatively expensive in comparison to the
secondary storage devices 108. For example, the information
management system 100 may generally regularly access data and
metadata stored on primary storage devices 104, whereas data and
metadata stored on the secondary storage devices 108 is accessed
relatively less frequently.
In some cases, each primary storage device 104 is dedicated to an
associated client computing devices 102. For instance, a primary
storage device 104 in one embodiment is a local disk drive of a
corresponding client computing device 102. In other cases, one or
more primary storage devices 104 can be shared by multiple client
computing devices 102. As one example, a primary storage device 104
can be a disk array shared by a group of client computing devices
102, such as one of the following types of disk arrays: EMC
Clariion, EMC Symmetrix, EMC Celerra, Dell EqualLogic, IBM XIV,
NetApp FAS, HP EVA, and HP 3PAR.
The information management system 100 may also include hosted
services (not shown), which may be hosted in some cases by an
entity other than the organization that employs the other
components of the information management system 100. For instance,
the hosted services may be provided by various online service
providers to the organization. Such service providers can provide
services including social networking services, hosted email
services, or hosted productivity applications or other hosted
applications).
Hosted services may include software-as-a-service (SaaS),
platform-as-a-service (PaaS), application service providers (ASPS),
cloud services, or other mechanisms for delivering functionality
via a network. As it provides services to users, each hosted
service may generate additional data and metadata under management
of the information management system 100, e.g., as primary data
112. In some cases, the hosted services may be accessed using one
of the applications 110. As an example, a hosted mail service may
be accessed via browser running on a client computing device
102.
Secondary Copies and Exemplary Secondary Storage Devices
The primary data 112 stored on the primary storage devices 104 may
be compromised in some cases, such as when an employee deliberately
or accidentally deletes or overwrites primary data 112 during their
normal course of work. Or the primary storage devices 104 can be
damaged or otherwise corrupted.
For recovery and/or regulatory compliance purposes, it is therefore
useful to generate copies of the primary data 112. Accordingly, the
information management system 100 includes one or more secondary
storage computing devices 106 and one or more secondary storage
devices 108 configured to create and store one or more secondary
copies 116 of the primary data 112 and associated metadata. The
secondary storage computing devices 106 and the secondary storage
devices 108 may be referred to in some cases as a secondary storage
subsystem 118.
Creation of secondary copies 116 can help meet information
management goals, such as: restoring data and/or metadata if an
original version (e.g., of primary data 112) is lost (e.g., by
deletion, corruption, or disaster); allowing point-in-time
recovery; complying with regulatory data retention and electronic
discovery (e-discovery) requirements; reducing utilized storage
capacity; facilitating organization and search of data; improving
user access to data files across multiple computing devices and/or
hosted services; and implementing data retention policies.
Types of data storage operations can include, without limitation,
backup operations, archive operations, snapshot operations,
replication operations (e.g., continuous data replication [CDR]),
data retention policies such as or information lifecycle management
and hierarchical storage management operations, and the like. These
specific types operations are discussed in greater detail
below.
Regardless of the type of data storage operation, the client
computing devices 102 access or receive primary data 112 and
communicate the data, e.g., over the communication pathways 114,
for storage in the secondary storage device(s) 108.
A data storage 116 can comprise a separate stored copy of
application data that is derived from one or more earlier created,
stored copies (e.g., derived from primary data 112 or another data
storage 116). Secondary copies 116 can include point-in-time data,
and may be intended for relatively long-term retention (e.g.,
weeks, months or years), before some or all of the data is moved to
other storage or is discarded.
In some cases, a data storage 116 is a copy of application data
created and stored subsequent to at least one other stored instance
(e.g., subsequent to corresponding primary data 112 or to another
data storage 116), in a different storage device than at least one
previous stored copy, and/or remotely from at least one previous
stored copy. Secondary copies 116 may be stored in relatively slow
and/or low cost storage (e.g., magnetic tape). A data storage 116
may be stored in a backup or archive format, or in some other
format different than the native source application format or other
primary data format.
In some cases, secondary copies 116 are indexed so users can browse
and restore at another point in time. After creation of a data
storage 116 representative of certain primary data 112, a pointer
or other location indicia (e.g., a stub) may be placed in primary
data 112, or be otherwise associated with primary data 112 to
indicate the current location on the secondary storage device(s)
108.
Since an instance a data object or metadata in primary data 112 may
change over time as it is modified by an application 110 (or hosted
service or the operating system), the information management system
100 may create and manage multiple secondary copies 116 of a
particular data object or metadata, each representing the state of
the data object in primary data 112 at a particular point in time.
Moreover, since an instance of a data object in primary data 112
may eventually be deleted from the primary storage device 104 and
the file system, the information management system 100 may continue
to manage point-in-time representations of that data object, even
though the instance in primary data 112 no longer exists.
For virtualized computing devices the operating system and other
applications 110 of the client computing device(s) 102 may execute
within or under the management of virtualization software (e.g., a
VMM), and the primary storage device(s) 104 may comprise a virtual
disk created on a physical storage device. The information
management system 100 may create secondary copies 116 of the files
or other data objects in a virtual disk file and/or secondary
copies 116 of the entire virtual disk file itself (e.g., of an
entire .vmdk file).
Secondary copies 116 may be distinguished from corresponding
primary data 112 in a variety of ways, some of which will now be
described. First, as discussed, secondary copies 116 can be stored
in a different format (e.g., backup, archive, or other non-native
format) than primary data 112. For this or other reasons, secondary
copies 116 may not be directly useable by the applications 110 of
the client computing device 102, e.g., via standard system calls or
otherwise without modification, processing, or other intervention
by the information management system 100.
Secondary copies 116 are also often stored on a secondary storage
device 108 that is inaccessible to the applications 110 running on
the client computing devices 102 (and/or hosted services). Some
secondary copies 116 may be "offline copies," in that they are not
readily available (e.g. not mounted to tape or disk). Offline
copies can include copies of data that the information management
system 100 can access without human intervention (e.g. tapes within
an automated tape library, but not yet mounted in a drive), and
copies that the information management system 100 can access only
with at least some human intervention (e.g. tapes located at an
offsite storage site).
The secondary storage devices 108 can include any suitable type of
storage device such as, without limitation, one or more tape
libraries, disk drives or other magnetic, non-tape storage devices,
optical media storage devices, solid state storage devices, NAS
devices, combinations of the same, and the like. In some cases, the
secondary storage devices 108 are provided in a cloud (e.g. a
private cloud or one operated by a third-party vendor).
The secondary storage device(s) 108 in some cases comprises a disk
array or a portion thereof. In some cases, a single storage device
(e.g., a disk array) is used for storing both primary data 112 and
at least some secondary copies 116. In one example, a disk array
capable of performing hardware snapshots stores primary data 112
and creates and stores hardware snapshots of the primary data 112
as secondary copies 116.
The Use of Intermediary Devices for Creating Secondary Copies
Creating secondary copies can be a challenging task. For instance,
there can be hundreds or thousands of client computing devices 102
continually generating large volumes of primary data 112 to be
protected. Also, there can be significant overhead involved in the
creation of secondary copies 116. Moreover, secondary storage
devices 108 may be special purpose components, and interacting with
them can require specialized intelligence.
In some cases, the client computing devices 102 interact directly
with the secondary storage device 108 to create the secondary
copies 116. However, in view of the factors described above, this
approach can negatively impact the ability of the client computing
devices 102 to serve the applications 110 and produce primary data
112. Further, the client computing devices 102 may not be optimized
for interaction with the secondary storage devices 108.
Thus, in some embodiments, the information management system 100
includes one or more software and/or hardware components which
generally act as intermediaries between the client computing
devices 102 and the secondary storage devices 108. In addition to
off-loading certain responsibilities from the client computing
devices 102, these intermediary components can provide other
benefits. For instance, as discussed further below with respect to
FIG. 1D, distributing some of the work involved in creating
secondary copies 116 can enhance scalability.
The intermediary components can include one or more secondary
storage computing devices 106 as shown in FIG. 1A and/or one or
more media agents, which can be software modules residing on
corresponding secondary storage computing devices 106 (or other
appropriate devices). Media agents are discussed below (e.g., with
respect to FIGS. 1C-1E).
The secondary storage computing device(s) 106 can comprise any
appropriate type of computing device and can include, without
limitation, any of the types of fixed and portable computing
devices described above with respect to the client computing
devices 102. In some cases, the secondary storage computing
device(s) 106 include specialized hardware and/or software
componentry for interacting with the secondary storage devices
108.
To create a data storage 116, the client computing device 102
communicates the primary data 112 to be copied (or a processed
version thereof) to the designated secondary storage computing
device 106, via the communication pathway 114. The secondary
storage computing device 106 in turn conveys the received data (or
a processed version thereof) to the secondary storage device 108.
In some such configurations, the communication pathway 114 between
the client computing device 102 and the secondary storage computing
device 106 comprises a portion of a LAN, WAN or SAN. In other
cases, at least some client computing devices 102 communicate
directly with the secondary storage devices 108 (e.g., via Fibre
Channel or SCSI connections).
Exemplary Primary Data and an Exemplary Secondary Copy
FIG. 1B is a detailed view showing some specific examples of
primary data stored on the primary storage device(s) 104 and data
storage data stored on the secondary storage device(s) 108, with
other components in the system removed for the purposes of
illustration. Stored on the primary storage device(s) 104 are
primary data objects including word processing documents 119A-B,
spreadsheets 120, presentation documents 122, video files 124,
image files 126, email mailboxes 128 (and corresponding email
messages 129A-C), html/xml or other types of markup language files
130, databases 132 and corresponding tables 133A-133C).
Some or all primary data objects are associated with a primary copy
of object metadata (e.g., "Meta1-11"), which may be file system
metadata and/or application specific metadata. Stored on the
secondary storage device(s) 108 are data storage objects 134A-C
which may include copies of or otherwise represent corresponding
primary data objects and metadata.
As shown, the data storage objects 134A-C can individually
represent more than one primary data object. For example, data
storage data object 134A represents three separate primary data
objects 133C, 122 and 129C (represented as 133C', 122' and 129C',
respectively). Moreover, as indicated by the prime mark ('), a data
storage object may store a representation of a primary data object
or metadata differently than the original format, e.g., in a
compressed, encrypted, deduplicated, or other modified format.
Exemplary Information Management System Architecture
The information management system 100 can incorporate a variety of
different hardware and software components, which can in turn be
organized with respect to one another in many different
configurations, depending on the embodiment. There are critical
design choices involved in specifying the functional
responsibilities of the components and the role of each component
in the information management system 100. For instance, as will be
discussed, such design choices can impact performance as well as
the adaptability of the information management system 100 to data
growth or other changing circumstances.
FIG. 1C shows an information management system 100 designed
according to these considerations and which includes: a central
storage or information manager 140 configured to perform certain
control functions, one or more data agents 142 executing on the
client computing device(s) 102 configured to process primary data
112, and one or more media agents 144 executing on the one or more
secondary storage computing devices 106 for performing tasks
involving the secondary storage devices 108.
Storage Manager
As noted, the number of components in the information management
system 100 and the amount of data under management can be quite
large. Managing the components and data is therefore a significant
task, and a task that can grow in an often unpredictable fashion as
the quantity of components and data scale to meet the needs of the
organization.
For these and other reasons, according to certain embodiments,
responsibility for controlling the information management system
100, or at least a significant portion of that responsibility, is
allocated to the storage manager 140.
By distributing control functionality in this manner, the storage
manager 140 can be adapted independently according to changing
circumstances. Moreover, a host computing device can be selected to
best suit the functions of the storage manager 140. These and other
advantages are described in further detail below with respect to
FIG. 1D.
The storage manager 140 may be a software module or other
application. The storage manager generally initiates, coordinates
and/or controls storage and other information management operations
performed by the information management system 100, e.g., to
protect and control the primary data 112 and secondary copies 116
of data and metadata.
As shown by the dashed, arrowed lines, the storage manager 140 may
communicate with and/or control some or all elements of the
information management system 100, such as the data agents 142 and
media agents 144. Thus, in certain embodiments, control information
originates from the storage manager 140, whereas payload data and
metadata is generally communicated between the data agents 142 and
the media agents 144 (or otherwise between the client computing
device(s) 102 and the secondary storage computing device(s) 106),
e.g., at the direction of the storage manager 140. In other
embodiments, some information management operations are controlled
by other components in the information management system 100 (e.g.,
the media agent(s) 144 or data agent(s) 142), instead of or in
combination with the storage manager 140.
According to certain embodiments, the storage manager provides one
or more of the following functions: initiating execution of data
storage operations; managing secondary storage devices 108 and
inventory/capacity of the same; allocating secondary storage
devices 108 for secondary storage operations; monitoring completion
of and providing status reporting related to secondary storage
operations; tracking age information relating to secondary copies
116, secondary storage devices 108, and comparing the age
information against retention guidelines; tracking movement of data
within the information management system 100; tracking logical
associations between components in the information management
system 100; protecting metadata associated with the information
management system 100; and implementing operations management
functionality.
The storage manager 140 may maintain a database 146 of
management-related data and information management policies 148.
The database 146 may include a management index 150 or other data
structure that stores logical associations between components of
the system, user preferences and/or profiles (e.g., preferences
regarding encryption, compression, or deduplication of primary or
data storage data, preferences regarding the scheduling, type, or
other aspects of primary or data storage or other operations,
mappings of particular information management users or user
accounts to certain computing devices or other components, etc.),
management tasks, media containerization, or other useful data. For
example, the storage manager 140 may use the index 150 to track
logical associations between media agents 144 and secondary storage
devices 108 and/or movement of data from primary storage devices
104 to secondary storage devices 108.
Administrators and other employees may be able to manually
configure and initiate certain information management operations on
an individual basis. But while this may be acceptable for some
recovery operations or other relatively less frequent tasks, it is
often not workable for implementing on-going organization-wide data
protection and management.
Thus, the information management system 100 may utilize information
management policies 148 for specifying and executing information
management operations (e.g., on an automated basis). Generally, an
information management policy 148 can include a data structure or
other information source that specifies a set of parameters (e.g.,
criteria and rules) associated with storage or other information
management operations.
The storage manager database 146 may maintain the information
management policies 148 and associated data, although the
information management policies 148 can be stored in any
appropriate location. For instance, a storage policy may be stored
as metadata in a media agent database 152 or in a secondary storage
device 108 (e.g., as an archive copy) for use in restore operations
or other information management operations, depending on the
embodiment. Information management policies 148 are described
further below.
According to certain embodiments, the storage manager database 146
comprises a relational database (e.g., an SQL database) for
tracking metadata, such as metadata associated with data storage
operations (e.g., what client computing devices 102 and
corresponding data were protected). This and other metadata may
additionally be stored in other locations, such as at the secondary
storage computing devices 106 or on the secondary storage devices
108, allowing data recovery without the use of the storage manager
140.
As shown, the storage manager 140 may include a jobs agent 156, a
user interface 158, and a management agent 154, all of which may be
implemented as interconnected software modules or application
programs.
The jobs agent 156 in some embodiments initiates, controls, and/or
monitors the status of some or all storage or other information
management operations previously performed, currently being
performed, or scheduled to be performed by the information
management system 100. For instance, the jobs agent 156 may access
information management policies 148 to determine when and how to
initiate and control data storage and other information management
operations, as will be discussed further.
The user interface 158 may include information processing and
display software, such as a graphical user interface ("GUI"), an
application program interface ("API"), or other interactive
interface through which users and system processes can retrieve
information about the status of information management operations
(e.g., storage operations) or issue instructions to the information
management system 100 and its constituent components.
The storage manager 140 may also track information that permits it
to select, designate, or otherwise identify content indices,
deduplication databases, or similar databases or resources or data
sets within its information management cell (or another cell) to be
searched in response to certain queries. Such queries may be
entered by the user via interaction with the user interface
158.
Via the user interface 158, users may optionally issue instructions
to the components in the information management system 100
regarding performance of storage and recovery operations. For
example, a user may modify a schedule concerning the number of
pending data storage operations. As another example, a user may
employ the GUI to view the status of pending storage operations or
to monitor the status of certain components in the information
management system 100 (e.g., the amount of capacity left in a
storage device).
In general, the management agent 154 allows multiple information
management systems 100 to communicate with one another. For
example, the information management system 100 in some cases may be
one information management subsystem or "cell" of a network of
multiple cells adjacent to one another or otherwise logically
related in a WAN or LAN. With this arrangement, the cells may be
connected to one another through respective management agents
154.
For instance, the management agent 154 can provide the storage
manager 140 with the ability to communicate with other components
within the information management system 100 (and/or other cells
within a larger information management system) via network
protocols and application programming interfaces ("APIs")
including, e.g., HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, REST, virtualization software
APIs, cloud service provider APIs, and hosted service provider
APIs. Inter-cell communication and hierarchy is described in
greater detail in U.S. Pat. No. 7,035,880, which is incorporated by
reference herein.
Data Agents
As discussed, a variety of different types of applications 110 can
reside on a given client computing device 102, including operating
systems, database applications, e-mail applications, and virtual
machines, just to name a few. And, as part of the as part of the
process of creating and restoring secondary copies 116, the client
computing devices 102 may be tasked with processing and preparing
the primary data 112 from these various different applications 110.
Moreover, the nature of the processing/preparation can differ
across clients and application types, e.g., due to inherent
structural and formatting differences between applications 110.
The one or more data agent(s) 142 are therefore advantageously
configured in some embodiments to assist in the performance of
information management operations based on the type of data that is
being protected, at a client-specific and/or application-specific
level.
The data agent 142 may be a software module or component that is
generally responsible for managing, initiating, or otherwise
assisting in the performance of information management operations.
For instance, the data agent 142 may take part in performing data
storage operations such as the copying, archiving, migrating,
replicating of primary data 112 stored in the primary storage
device(s) 104. The data agent 142 may receive control information
from the storage manager 140, such as commands to transfer copies
of data objects, metadata, and other payload data to the media
agents 144.
In some embodiments, a data agent 142 may be distributed between
the client computing device 102 and storage manager 140 (and any
other intermediate components) or may be deployed from a remote
location or its functions approximated by a remote process that
performs some or all of the functions of data agent 142. In
addition, a data agent 142 may perform some functions provided by a
media agent 144, e.g., encryption and deduplication.
As indicated, each data agent 142 may be specialized for a
particular application 110, and the system can employ multiple data
agents 142, each of which may backup, migrate, and recover data
associated with a different application 110. For instance,
different individual data agents 142 may be designed to handle
Microsoft Exchange data, Lotus Notes data, Microsoft Windows file
system data, Microsoft Active Directory Objects data, SQL Server
data, SharePoint data, Oracle database data, SAP database data,
virtual machines and/or associated data, and other types of
data.
A file system data agent, for example, may handle data files and/or
other file system information. If a client computing device 102 has
two or more types of data, one data agent 142 may be used for each
data type to copy, archive, migrate, and restore the client
computing device 102 data. For example, to backup, migrate, and
restore all of the data on a Microsoft Exchange server, the client
computing device 102 may use one Microsoft Exchange Mailbox data
agent 142 to backup the Exchange mailboxes, one Microsoft Exchange
Database data agent 142 to backup the Exchange databases, one
Microsoft Exchange Public Folder data agent 142 to backup the
Exchange Public Folders, and one Microsoft Windows File System data
agent 142 to backup the file system of the client computing device
102. In such embodiments, these data agents 142 may be treated as
four separate data agents 142 by even though they reside on the
same client computing device 102.
Other embodiments may employ one or more generic data agents 142
that can handle and process data from two or more different
applications 110, or that can handle and process multiple data
types, instead of or in addition to using specialized data agents
142. For example, one generic data agent 142 may be used to back
up, migrate and restore Microsoft Exchange Mailbox data and
Microsoft Exchange Database data while another generic data agent
may handle Microsoft Exchange Public Folder data and Microsoft
Windows File System data.
Each data agent 142 may be configured to access data and/or
metadata stored in the primary storage device(s) 104 associated
with the data agent 142 and process the data as appropriate. For
example, during a data storage operation, the data agent 142 may
arrange or assemble the data and metadata into one or more files
having a certain format (e.g., a particular backup or archive
format) before transferring the file(s) to a media agent 144 or
other component. The file(s) may include a list of files or other
metadata. Each data agent 142 can also assist in restoring data or
metadata to primary storage devices 104 from a data storage 116.
For instance, the data agent 142 may operate in conjunction with
the storage manager 140 and one or more of the media agents 144 to
restore data from secondary storage device(s) 108.
Media Agents
As indicated above with respect to FIG. 1A, off-loading certain
responsibilities from the client computing devices 102 to
intermediary components such as the media agent(s) 144 can provide
a number of benefits including improved client computing device 102
operation, faster data storage operation performance, and enhanced
scalability. As one specific example which will be discussed below
in further detail, the media agent 144 can act as a local cache of
copied data and/or metadata that it has stored to the secondary
storage device(s) 108, providing improved restore capabilities.
Generally speaking, a media agent 144 may be implemented as a
software module that manages, coordinates, and facilitates the
transmission of data, as directed by the storage manager 140,
between a client computing device 102 and one or more secondary
storage devices 108. Whereas the storage manager 140 controls the
operation of the information management system 100, the media agent
144 generally provides a portal to secondary storage devices
108.
Media agents 144 can comprise logically and/or physically separate
nodes in the information management system 100 (e.g., separate from
the client computing devices 102, storage manager 140, and/or
secondary storage devices 108). In addition, each media agent 144
may reside on a dedicated secondary storage computing device 106 in
some cases, while in other embodiments a plurality of media agents
144 reside on the same secondary storage computing device 106.
A media agent 144 (and corresponding media agent database 152) may
be considered to be "associated with" a particular secondary
storage device 108 if that media agent 144 is capable of one or
more of: routing and/or storing data to the particular secondary
storage device 108, coordinating the routing and/or storing of data
to the particular secondary storage device 108, retrieving data
from the particular secondary storage device 108, and coordinating
the retrieval of data from a particular secondary storage device
108.
While media agent(s) 144 are generally associated with one or more
secondary storage devices 108, the media agents 144 in certain
embodiments are physically separate from the secondary storage
devices 108. For instance, the media agents 144 may reside on
secondary storage computing devices 106 having different housings
or packages than the secondary storage devices 108. In one example,
a media agent 144 resides on a first server computer and is in
communication with a secondary storage device(s) 108 residing in a
separate, rack-mounted RAID-based system.
In operation, a media agent 144 associated with a particular
secondary storage device 108 may instruct the secondary storage
device 108 (e.g., a tape library) to use a robotic arm or other
retrieval means to load or eject a certain storage media, and to
subsequently archive, migrate, or retrieve data to or from that
media, e.g., for the purpose of restoring the data to a client
computing device 102. The media agent 144 may communicate with a
secondary storage device 108 via a suitable communications link,
such as a SCSI or Fiber Channel link.
As shown, each media agent 144 may maintain an associated media
agent database 152. The media agent database 152 may be stored in a
disk or other storage device (not shown) that is local to the
secondary storage computing device 106 on which the media agent 144
resides. In other cases, the media agent database 152 is stored
remotely from the secondary storage computing device 106.
The media agent database 152 can include, among other things, an
index 153 including data generated during data storage operations
and other storage or information management operations. The index
153 provides a media agent 144 or other component with a fast and
efficient mechanism for locating secondary copies 116 or other data
stored in the secondary storage devices 108. In one configuration,
a storage manager index 150 or other data structure may store data
associating a client computing device 102 with a particular media
agent 144 and/or secondary storage device 108, as specified in a
storage policy. A media agent index 153 or other data structure
associated with the particular media agent 144 may in turn include
information about the stored data.
For instance, for each data storage 116, the index 153 may include
metadata such as a list of the data objects (e.g.,
files/subdirectories, database objects, mailbox objects, etc.), a
path to the data storage 116 on the corresponding secondary storage
device 108, location information indicating where the data objects
are stored in the secondary storage device 108, when the data
objects were created or modified, etc. Thus, the index 153 includes
metadata associated with the secondary copies 116 that is readily
available for use in storage operations and other activities
without having to be first retrieved from the secondary storage
device 108. In yet further embodiments, some or all of the data in
the index 153 may instead or additionally be stored along with the
data in a secondary storage device 108, e.g., with a copy of the
index 153.
Because the index 153 maintained in the database 152 may operate as
a cache, it can also be referred to as an index cache. In such
cases, information stored in the index cache 153 typically
comprises data that reflects certain particulars about storage
operations that have occurred relatively recently. After some
triggering event, such as after a certain period of time elapses,
or the index cache 153 reaches a particular size, the index cache
153 may be copied or migrated to a secondary storage device(s) 108.
This information may need to be retrieved and uploaded back into
the index cache 153 or otherwise restored to a media agent 144 to
facilitate retrieval of data from the secondary storage device(s)
108. In some embodiments, the cached information may include format
or containerization information related to archives or other files
stored on the storage device(s) 108. In this manner, the index
cache 153 allows for accelerated restores.
In some alternative embodiments the media agent 144 generally acts
as a coordinator or facilitator of storage operations between
client computing devices 102 and corresponding secondary storage
devices 108, but does not actually write the data to the secondary
storage device 108. For instance, the storage manager 140 (or the
media agent 144) may instruct a client computing device 102 and
secondary storage device 108 to communicate with one another
directly. In such a case the client computing device 102 transmits
the data directly to the secondary storage device 108 according to
the received instructions, and vice versa. In some such cases, the
media agent 144 may still receive, process, and/or maintain
metadata related to the storage operations. Moreover, in these
embodiments, the payload data can flow through the media agent 144
for the purposes of populating the index cache 153 maintained in
the media agent database 152, but not for writing to the secondary
storage device 108.
The media agent 144 and/or other components such as the storage
manager 140 may in some cases incorporate additional functionality,
such as data classification, content indexing, deduplication,
encryption, compression, and the like. Further details regarding
these and other functions are described below.
Distributed, Scalable Architecture
As described, certain functions of the information management
system 100 can be distributed amongst various physical and/or
logical components in the system. For instance, one or more of the
storage manager 140, data agents 142, and media agents 144 may
reside on computing devices that are physically separate from one
another. This architecture can provide a number of benefits.
For instance, hardware and software design choices for each
distributed component can be targeted to suit its particular
function. The secondary computing devices 106 on which the media
agents 144 reside can be tailored for interaction with associated
secondary storage devices 108 and provide fast index cache
operation, among other specific tasks. Similarly, the client
computing device(s) 102 can be selected to effectively service the
applications 110 residing thereon, in order to efficiently produce
and store primary data 112.
Moreover, in some cases, one or more of the individual components
in the information management system 100 can be distributed to
multiple, separate computing devices. As one example, for large
file systems where the amount of data stored in the storage
management database 146 is relatively large, the management
database 146 may be migrated to or otherwise reside on a
specialized database server (e.g., an SQL server) separate from a
server that implements the other functions of the storage manager
140. This configuration can provide added protection because the
database 146 can be protected with standard database utilities
(e.g., SQL log shipping or database replication) independent from
other functions of the storage manager 140. The database 146 can be
efficiently replicated to a remote site for use in the event of a
disaster or other data loss incident at the primary site. Or the
database 146 can be replicated to another computing device within
the same site, such as to a higher performance machine in the event
that a storage manager host device can no longer service the needs
of a growing information management system 100.
The distributed architecture also provides both scalability and
efficient component utilization. FIG. 1D shows an embodiment of the
information management system 100 including a plurality of client
computing devices 102 and associated data agents 142 as well as a
plurality of secondary storage computing devices 106 and associated
media agents 144.
Additional components can be added or subtracted based on the
evolving needs of the information management system 100. For
instance, depending on where bottlenecks are identified,
administrators can add additional client computing devices 102,
secondary storage devices 106 (and corresponding media agents 144),
and/or secondary storage devices 108.
Moreover, each client computing device 102 in some embodiments can
communicate with any of the media agents 144, e.g., as directed by
the storage manager 140. And each media agent 144 may be able to
communicate with any of the secondary storage devices 108, e.g., as
directed by the storage manager 140. Thus, operations can be routed
to the secondary storage devices 108 in a dynamic and highly
flexible manner. Further examples of scalable systems capable of
dynamic storage operations are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 7,246,207,
which is incorporated by reference herein.
In alternative configurations, certain components are not
distributed and may instead reside and execute on the same
computing device. For example, in some embodiments one or more data
agents 142 and the storage manager 140 reside on the same client
computing device 102. In another embodiment, one or more data
agents 142 and one or more media agents 144 reside on a single
computing device.
Exemplary Types of Information Management Operations
In order to protect and leverage stored data, the information
management system 100 can be configured to perform a variety of
information management operations. As will be described, these
operations can generally include data storage and other data
movement operations, processing and data manipulation operations,
and management operations.
Data Movement Operations
Data movement operations according to certain embodiments are
generally operations that involve the copying or migration of data
(e.g., payload data) between different locations in the information
management system 100. For example, data movement operations can
include operations in which stored data is copied, migrated, or
otherwise transferred from primary storage device(s) 104 to
secondary storage device(s) 108, from secondary storage device(s)
108 to different secondary storage device(s) 108, or from primary
storage device(s) 104 to different primary storage device(s)
104.
Data movement operations can include by way of example, backup
operations, archive operations, information lifecycle management
operations such as hierarchical storage management operations,
replication operations (e.g., continuous data replication
operations), snapshot operations, deduplication operations,
single-instancing operations, auxiliary copy operations, and the
like. As will be discussed, some of these operations involve the
copying, migration or other movement of data, without actually
creating multiple, distinct copies. Nonetheless, some or all of
these operations are referred to as "copy" operations for
simplicity.
Backup Operations
A backup operation creates a copy of primary data 112 at a
particular point in time. Each subsequent backup copy may be
maintained independently of the first. Further, a backup copy in
some embodiments is stored in a backup format. This can be in
contrast to the version in primary data 112 from which the backup
copy is derived, and which may instead be stored in a native format
of the source application(s) 110. In various cases, backup copies
can be stored in a format in which the data is compressed,
encrypted, deduplicated, and/or otherwise modified from the
original application format. For example, a backup copy may be
stored in a backup format that facilitates compression and/or
efficient long-term storage.
Backup copies can have relatively long retention periods as
compared to primary data 112, and may be stored on media with
slower retrieval times than primary data 112 and certain other
types of secondary copies 116. On the other hand, backups may have
relatively shorter retention periods than some other types of
secondary copies 116, such as archive copies (described below).
Backups may sometimes be stored at on offsite location.
Backup operations can include full, synthetic or incremental
backups. A full backup in some embodiments is generally a complete
image of the data to be protected. However, because full backup
copies can consume a relatively large amount of storage, it can be
useful to use a full backup copy as a baseline and only store
changes relative to the full backup copy for subsequent backup
copies.
For instance, a differential backup operation (or cumulative
incremental backup operation) tracks and stores changes that have
occurred since the last full backup. Differential backups can grow
quickly in size, but can provide relatively efficient restore times
because a restore can be completed in some cases using only the
full backup copy and the latest differential copy.
An incremental backup operation generally tracks and stores changes
since the most recent backup copy of any type, which can greatly
reduce storage utilization. In some cases, however, restore times
can be relatively long in comparison to full or differential
backups because completing a restore operation may involve
accessing a full backup in addition to multiple incremental
backups.
Any of the above types of backup operations can be at the
file-level, e.g., where the information management system 100
generally tracks changes to files at the file-level, and includes
copies of files in the backup copy. In other cases, block-level
backups are employed, where files are broken into constituent
blocks, and changes are tracked at the block-level. Upon restore,
the information management system 100 reassembles the blocks into
files in a transparent fashion.
Far less data may actually be transferred and copied to the
secondary storage devices 108 during a block-level copy than during
a file-level copy, resulting in faster execution times. However,
when restoring a block-level copy, the process of locating
constituent blocks can sometimes result in longer restore times as
compared to file-level backups. Similar to backup operations, the
other types of data storage operations described herein can also be
implemented at either the file-level or the block-level.
Archive Operations
Because backup operations generally involve maintaining a version
of the copied data in primary data 112 and also maintaining backup
copies in secondary storage device(s) 108, they can consume
significant storage capacity. To help reduce storage consumption,
an archive operation according to certain embodiments creates a
data storage 116 by both copying and removing source data. Or, seen
another way, archive operations can involve moving some or all of
the source data to the archive destination. Thus, data satisfying
criteria for removal (e.g., data of a threshold age or size) from
the source copy may be removed from source storage. Archive copies
are sometimes stored in an archive format or other non-native
application format. The source data may be primary data 112 or a
data storage 116, depending on the situation. As with backup
copies, archive copies can be stored in a format in which the data
is compressed, encrypted, deduplicated, and/or otherwise modified
from the original application format.
In addition, archive copies may be retained for relatively long
periods of time (e.g., years) and, in some cases, are never
deleted. Archive copies are generally retained for longer periods
of time than backup copies, for example. In certain embodiments,
archive copies may be made and kept for extended periods in order
to meet compliance regulations.
Moreover, when primary data 112 is archived, in some cases the
archived primary data 112 or a portion thereof is deleted when
creating the archive copy. Thus, archiving can serve the purpose of
freeing up space in the primary storage device(s) 104. Similarly,
when a data storage 116 is archived, the data storage 116 may be
deleted, and an archive copy can therefore serve the purpose of
freeing up space in secondary storage device(s) 108. In contrast,
source copies often remain intact when creating backup copies.
Snapshot Operations
Snapshot operations can provide a relatively lightweight, efficient
mechanism for protecting data. From an end-user viewpoint, a
snapshot may be thought of as an "instant" image of the primary
data 112 at a given point in time. In one embodiment, a snapshot
may generally capture the directory structure of an object in
primary data 112 such as a file or volume or other data set at a
particular moment in time and may also preserve file attributes and
contents. A snapshot in some cases is created relatively quickly,
e.g., substantially instantly, using a minimum amount of file
space, but may still function as a conventional file system
backup.
A snapshot copy in many cases can be made quickly and without
significantly impacting primary computing resources because large
amounts of data need not be copied or moved. In some embodiments, a
snapshot may exist as a virtual file system, parallel to the actual
file system. Users in some cases gain read-only access to the
record of files and directories of the snapshot. By electing to
restore primary data 112 from a snapshot taken at a given point in
time, users may also return the current file system to the state of
the file system that existed when the snapshot was taken.
Some types of snapshots do not actually create another physical
copy of all the data as it existed at the particular point in time,
but may simply create pointers that are able to map files and
directories to specific memory locations (e.g., disk blocks) where
the data resides, as it existed at the particular point in time.
For example, a snapshot copy may include a set of pointers derived
from the file system or an application. Each pointer points to a
respective stored data block, so collectively, the set of pointers
reflect the storage location and state of the data object (e.g.,
file(s) or volume(s) or data set(s)) at a particular point in time
when the snapshot copy was created.
In some embodiments, once a snapshot has been taken, subsequent
changes to the file system typically do not overwrite the blocks in
use at the time of the snapshot. Therefore, the initial snapshot
may use only a small amount of disk space needed to record a
mapping or other data structure representing or otherwise tracking
the blocks that correspond to the current state of the file system.
Additional disk space is usually required only when files and
directories are actually modified later. Furthermore, when files
are modified, typically only the pointers which map to blocks are
copied, not the blocks themselves. In some embodiments, for example
in the case of "copy-on-write" snapshots, when a block changes in
primary storage, the block is copied to secondary storage or cached
in primary storage before the block is overwritten in primary
storage. The snapshot mapping of file system data is also updated
to reflect the changed block(s) at that particular point in time.
In some other cases, a snapshot includes a full physical copy of
all or substantially all of the data represented by the snapshot.
Further examples of snapshot operations are provided in U.S. Pat.
No. 7,529,782, which is incorporated by reference herein.
Replication Operations
Another type of data storage operation is a replication operation.
Some types of secondary copies 116 are used to periodically capture
images of primary data 112 at particular points in time (e.g.,
backups, archives, and snapshots). However, it can also be useful
for recovery purposes to protect primary data 112 in a more
continuous fashion, by replicating the primary data 112
substantially as changes occur. In some cases a replication copy
can be a mirror copy, for instance, where changes made to primary
data 112 are mirrored to another location (e.g., to secondary
storage device(s) 108). By copying each write operation to the
replication copy, two storage systems are kept synchronized or
substantially synchronized so that they are virtually identical at
approximately the same time. Where entire disk volumes are
mirrored, however, mirroring can require significant amount of
storage space and utilizes a large amount of processing
resources.
According to some embodiments storage operations are performed on
replicated data that represents a recoverable state, or "known good
state" of a particular application running on the source system.
For instance, in certain embodiments, known good replication copies
may be viewed as copies of primary data 112. This feature allows
the system to directly access, copy, restore, backup or otherwise
manipulate the replication copies as if the data was the "live",
primary data 112. This can reduce access time, storage utilization,
and impact on source applications 110, among other benefits.
Based on known good state information, the information management
system 100 can replicate sections of application data that
represent a recoverable state rather than rote copying of blocks of
data. Examples of compatible replication operations (e.g.,
continuous data replication) are provided in U.S. Pat. No.
7,617,262, which is incorporated by reference herein.
Deduplication/Single-Instancing Operations
Another type of data movement operation is deduplication, which is
useful to reduce the amount of data within the system. For
instance, some or all of the above-described secondary storage
operations can involve deduplication in some fashion. New data is
read, broken down into blocks (e.g., sub-file level blocks) of a
selected granularity, compared with blocks that are already stored,
and only the new blocks are stored. Blocks that already exist are
represented as pointers to the already stored data.
In order to stream-line the comparison process, the information
management system 100 may calculate and/or store signatures (e.g.,
hashes) corresponding to the individual data blocks and compare the
hashes instead of comparing entire data blocks. In some cases, only
a single instance of each element is stored, and deduplication
operations may therefore be referred to interchangeably as
"single-instancing" operations. Depending on the implementation,
however, deduplication or single-instancing operations can store
more than one instance of certain data blocks, but nonetheless
significantly reduce data redundancy. Moreover, single-instancing
in some cases is distinguished from deduplication as a process of
analyzing and reducing data at the file level, rather than the
sub-file level.
Depending on the embodiment, deduplication blocks can be of fixed
or variable length. Using variable length blocks can provide
enhanced deduplication by responding to changes in the data stream,
but can involve complex processing. In some cases, the information
management system 100 utilizes a technique for dynamically aligning
deduplication blocks (e.g., fixed-length blocks) based on changing
content in the data stream, as described in U.S. Pat. Pub. No.
2012/0084268, which is incorporated by reference herein.
The information management system 100 can perform deduplication in
a variety of manners at a variety of locations in the information
management system 100. For instance, in some embodiments, the
information management system 100 implements "target-side"
deduplication by deduplicating data (e.g., secondary copies 116)
stored in the secondary storage devices 108. In some such cases,
the media agents 144 are generally configured to manage the
deduplication process. For instance, one or more of the media
agents 144 maintain a corresponding deduplication database that
stores deduplication information (e.g., datablock signatures).
Examples of such a configuration are provided in U.S. Pat. Pub. No.
2012/0150826, which is incorporated by reference herein.
Deduplication can also be performed on the "source-side" (or
"client-side"), e.g., to reduce the amount of traffic between the
media agents 144 and the client computing device(s) 102 and/or
reduce redundant data stored in the primary storage devices 104.
Examples of such deduplication techniques are provided in U.S. Pat.
Pub. No. 2012/0150818, which is incorporated by reference
herein.
Information Lifecycle Management and Hierarchical Storage
Management Operations
In some embodiments, files and other data over their lifetime move
from more expensive, quick access storage to less expensive, slower
access storage. Operations associated with moving data through
various tiers of storage are sometimes referred to as information
lifecycle management (ILM) operations.
One type of ILM operation is a hierarchical storage management
(HSM) operation. A HSM operation is generally an operation for
automatically moving data between classes of storage devices, such
as between high-cost and low-cost storage devices. For instance, an
HSM operation may involve movement of data from primary storage
devices 104 to secondary storage devices 108, or between tiers of
secondary storage devices 108. With each tier, the storage devices
may be progressively relatively cheaper, have relatively slower
access/restore times, etc. For example, movement of data between
tiers may occur as data becomes less important over time.
In some embodiments, an HSM operation is similar to an archive
operation in that creating an HSM copy may (though not always)
involve deleting some of the source data. For example, an HSM copy
may include data from primary data 112 or a data storage 116 that
is larger than a given size threshold or older than a given age
threshold and that is stored in a backup format.
Often, and unlike some types of archive copies, HSM data that is
removed or aged from the source copy is replaced by a logical
reference pointer or stub. The reference pointer or stub can be
stored in the primary storage device 104 to replace the deleted
data in primary data 112 (or other source copy) and to point to or
otherwise indicate the new location in a secondary storage device
108.
According to one example, files are generally moved between higher
and lower cost storage depending on how often the files are
accessed. When a user requests access to the HSM data that has been
removed or migrated, the information management system 100 uses the
stub to locate the data and often make recovery of the data appear
transparent, even though the HSM data may be stored at a location
different from the remaining source data. The stub may also include
some metadata associated with the corresponding data, so that a
file system and/or application can provide some information about
the data object and/or a limited-functionality version (e.g., a
preview) of the data object.
An HSM copy may be stored in a format other than the native
application format (e.g., where the data is compressed, encrypted,
deduplicated, and/or otherwise modified from the original
application format). In some cases, copies which involve the
removal of data from source storage and the maintenance of stub or
other logical reference information on source storage may be
referred to generally as "on-line archive copies". On the other
hand, copies which involve the removal of data from source storage
without the maintenance of stub or other logical reference
information on source storage may be referred to as "off-line
archive copies".
Auxiliary Copy and Disaster Recovery Operations
An auxiliary copy is generally a copy operation in which a copy is
created of an existing data storage 116. For instance, an initial
or "primary" data storage 116 may be generated using or otherwise
be derived from primary data 112, whereas an auxiliary copy is
generated from the initial data storage 116. Auxiliary copies can
be used to create additional standby copies of data and may reside
on different secondary storage devices 108 than initial secondary
copies 116. Thus, auxiliary copies can be used for recovery
purposes if initial secondary copies 116 become unavailable.
Exemplary compatible auxiliary copy techniques are described in
further detail in U.S. Pat. No. 8,230,195, which is incorporated by
reference herein.
The information management system 100 may also perform disaster
recovery operations that make or retain disaster recovery copies,
often as secondary, high-availability disk copies. The information
management system 100 may create secondary disk copies and store
the copies at disaster recovery locations using auxiliary copy or
replication operations, such as continuous data replication
technologies. Depending on the particular data protection goals,
disaster recovery locations can be remote from the client computing
devices 102 and primary storage devices 104, remote from some or
all of the secondary storage devices 108, or both.
Data Processing and Manipulation Operations
As indicated, the information management system 100 can also be
configured to implement certain data manipulation operations, which
according to certain embodiments are generally operations involving
the processing or modification of stored data. Some data
manipulation operations include content indexing operations and
classification operations can be useful in leveraging the data
under management to provide enhanced search and other features.
Other data manipulation operations such as compression and
encryption can provide data reduction and security benefits,
respectively.
Data manipulation operations can be different than data movement
operations in that they do not necessarily involve the copying,
migration or other transfer of data (e.g., primary data 112 or
secondary copies 116) between different locations in the system.
For instance, data manipulation operations may involve processing
(e.g., offline processing) or modification of already stored
primary data 112 and/or secondary copies 116. However, in some
embodiments data manipulation operations are performed in
conjunction with data movement operations. As one example, the
information management system 100 may encrypt data while performing
an archive operation.
Content Indexing
In some embodiments, the information management system 100 "content
indexes" data stored within the primary data 112 and/or secondary
copies 116, providing enhanced search capabilities for data
discovery and other purposes. The content indexing can be used to
identify files or other data objects having pre-defined content
(e.g., user-defined keywords or phrases), metadata (e.g., email
metadata such as "to", "from", "cc", "bcc", attachment name,
received time, etc.).
The information management system 100 generally organizes and
catalogues the results in a content index, which may be stored
within the media agent database 152, for example. The content index
can also include the storage locations of (or pointer references
to) the indexed data in the primary data 112 or secondary copies
116, as appropriate. The results may also be stored, in the form of
a content index database or otherwise, elsewhere in the information
management system 100 (e.g., in the primary storage devices 104, or
in the secondary storage device 108). Such index data provides the
storage manager 140 or another component with an efficient
mechanism for locating primary data 112 and/or secondary copies 116
of data objects that match particular criteria.
For instance, search criteria can be specified by a user through
user interface 158 of the storage manager 140. In some cases, the
information management system 100 analyzes data and/or metadata in
secondary copies 116 to create an "off-line" content index, without
significantly impacting the performance of the client computing
devices 102. Depending on the embodiment, the system can also
implement "on-line" content indexing, e.g., of primary data 112.
Examples of compatible content indexing techniques are provided in
U.S. Pat. No. 8,170,995, which is incorporated by reference
herein.
Classification Operations--Metabase
In order to help leverage the data stored in the information
management system 100, one or more components can be configured to
scan data and/or associated metadata for classification purposes to
populate a metabase of information. Such scanned, classified data
and/or metadata may be included in a separate database and/or on a
separate storage device from primary data 112 (and/or secondary
copies 116), such that metabase related operations do not
significantly impact performance on other components in the
information management system 100.
In other cases, the metabase(s) may be stored along with primary
data 112 and/or secondary copies 116. Files or other data objects
can be associated with user-specified identifiers (e.g., tag
entries) in the media agent 144 (or other indices) to facilitate
searches of stored data objects. Among a number of other benefits,
the metabase can also allow efficient, automatic identification of
files or other data objects to associate with data storage or other
information management operations (e.g., in lieu of scanning an
entire file system). Examples of compatible metabases and data
classification operations are provided in U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,229,954
and 7,747,579, which are incorporated by reference herein.
Encryption Operations
The information management system 100 in some cases is configured
to process data (e.g., files or other data objects, secondary
copies 116, etc.), according to an appropriate encryption algorithm
(e.g., Blowfish, Advanced Encryption Standard [AES], Triple Data
Encryption Standard [3-DES], etc.) to limit access and provide data
security in the information management system 100.
The information management system 100 in some cases encrypts the
data at the client level, such that the client computing devices
102 (e.g., the data agents 142) encrypt the data prior to
forwarding the data to other components, e.g., before sending the
data media agents 144 during a data storage operation. In such
cases, the client computing device 102 may maintain or have access
to an encryption key or passphrase for decrypting the data upon
restore. Encryption can also occur when creating copies of
secondary copies, e.g., when creating auxiliary copies. In yet
further embodiments, the secondary storage devices 108 can
implement built-in, high performance hardware encryption.
Management Operations
Certain embodiments leverage the integrated, ubiquitous nature of
the information management system 100 to provide useful system-wide
management functions. As two non-limiting examples, the information
management system 100 can be configured to implement operations
management and e-discovery functions.
Operations management can generally include monitoring and managing
the health and performance of information management system 100 by,
without limitation, performing error tracking, generating granular
storage/performance metrics (e.g., job success/failure information,
deduplication efficiency, etc.), generating storage modeling and
costing information, and the like.
Such information can be provided to users via the user interface
158 in a single, integrated view. For instance, the integrated user
interface 158 can include an option to show a "virtual view" of the
system that graphically depicts the various components in the
system using appropriate icons. The operations management
functionality can facilitate planning and decision-making. For
example, in some embodiments, a user may view the status of some or
all jobs as well as the status of each component of the information
management system 100. Users may then plan and make decisions based
on this data. For instance, a user may view high-level information
regarding storage operations for the information management system
100, such as job status, component status, resource status (e.g.,
network pathways, etc.), and other information. The user may also
drill down or use other means to obtain more detailed information
regarding a particular component, job, or the like.
In some cases the information management system 100 alerts a user
such as a system administrator when a particular resource is
unavailable or congested. For example, a particular primary storage
device 104 or secondary storage device 108 might be full or require
additional capacity. Or a component may be unavailable due to
hardware failure, software problems, or other reasons. In response,
the information management system 100 may suggest solutions to such
problems when they occur (or provide a warning prior to
occurrence). For example, the storage manager 140 may alert the
user that a secondary storage device 108 is full or otherwise
congested. The storage manager 140 may then suggest, based on job
and data storage information contained in its database 146, an
alternate secondary storage device 108.
Other types of corrective actions may include suggesting an
alternate data path to a particular primary or secondary storage
device 104, 108, or dividing data to be stored among various
available primary or secondary storage devices 104, 108 as a load
balancing measure or to otherwise optimize storage or retrieval
time. Such suggestions or corrective actions may be performed
automatically, if desired. Further examples of some compatible
operations management techniques and of interfaces providing an
integrated view of an information management system are provided in
U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453, which is incorporated by reference herein.
In some embodiments, the storage manager 140 implements the
operations management functions described herein.
The information management system 100 can also be configured to
perform system-wide e-discovery operations in some embodiments. In
general, e-discovery operations provide a unified collection and
search capability for data in the system, such as data stored in
the secondary storage devices 108 (e.g., backups, archives, or
other secondary copies 116). For example, the information
management system 100 may construct and maintain a virtual
repository for data stored in the information management system 100
that is integrated across source applications 110, different
storage device types, etc. According to some embodiments,
e-discovery utilizes other techniques described herein, such as
data classification and/or content indexing.
Information Management Policies
As indicated previously, an information management policy 148 can
include a data structure or other information source that specifies
a set of parameters (e.g., criteria and rules) associated with data
storage or other information management operations.
One type of information management policy 148 is a storage policy.
According to certain embodiments, a storage policy generally
comprises a logical container that defines (or includes information
sufficient to determine) one or more of the following items: (1)
what data will be associated with the storage policy; (2) a
destination to which the data will be stored; (3) datapath
information specifying how the data will be communicated to the
destination; (4) the type of storage operation to be performed; and
(5) retention information specifying how long the data will be
retained at the destination.
Data associated with a storage policy can be logically organized
into groups, which can be referred to as "sub-clients". A
sub-client may represent static or dynamic associations of portions
of a data volume. Sub-clients may represent mutually exclusive
portions. Thus, in certain embodiments, a portion of data may be
given a label and the association is stored as a static entity in
an index, database or other storage location.
Sub-clients may also be used as an effective administrative scheme
of organizing data according to data type, department within the
enterprise, storage preferences, or the like. Depending on the
configuration, sub-clients can correspond to files, folders,
virtual machines, databases, etc. In one exemplary scenario, an
administrator may find it preferable to separate e-mail data from
financial data using two different sub-clients.
A storage policy can define where data is stored by specifying a
target or destination storage device (or group of storage devices).
For instance, where the secondary storage device 108 includes a
group of disk libraries, the storage policy may specify a
particular disk library for storing the sub-clients associated with
the policy. As another example, where the secondary storage devices
108 include one or more tape libraries, the storage policy may
specify a particular tape library for storing the sub-clients
associated with the storage policy, and may also specify a drive
pool and a tape pool defining a group of tape drives and a group of
tapes, respectively, for use in storing the sub-client data.
Datapath information can also be included in the storage policy.
For instance, the storage policy may specify network pathways and
components to utilize when moving the data to the destination
storage device(s). In some embodiments, the storage policy
specifies one or more media agents 144 for conveying data (e.g.,
one or more sub-clients) associated with the storage policy between
the source (e.g., one or more host client computing devices 102)
and destination (e.g., a particular target secondary storage device
108).
A storage policy can also specify the type(s) of operations
associated with the storage policy, such as a backup, archive,
snapshot, auxiliary copy, or the like. Retention information can
specify how long the data will be kept, depending on organizational
needs (e.g., a number of days, months, years, etc.)
The information management policies 148 may also include one or
more scheduling policies specifying when and how often to perform
operations. Scheduling information may specify with what frequency
(e.g., hourly, weekly, daily, event-based, etc.) or under what
triggering conditions data storage or other information management
operations will take place. Scheduling policies in some cases are
associated with particular components, such as particular
sub-clients, client computing device 102, and the like. In one
configuration, a separate scheduling policy is maintained for
particular sub-clients on a client computing device 102. The
scheduling policy specifies that those sub-clients are to be moved
to secondary storage devices 108 every hour according to storage
policies associated with the respective sub-clients.
When adding a new client computing device 102, administrators can
manually configure information management policies 148 and/or other
settings, e.g., via the user interface 158. However, this can be an
involved process resulting in delays, and it may be desirable to
begin data protecting operations quickly.
Thus, in some embodiments, the information management system 100
automatically applies a default configuration to client computing
device 102. As one example, when a data agent(s) 142 is installed
on a client computing devices 102, the installation script may
register the client computing device 102 with the storage manager
140, which in turn applies the default configuration to the new
client computing device 102. In this manner, data protection
operations can begin substantially immediately. The default
configuration can include a default storage policy, for example,
and can specify any appropriate information sufficient to begin
data protection operations. This can include a type of data
protection operation, scheduling information, a target secondary
storage device 108, data path information (e.g., a particular media
agent 144), and the like.
Other types of information management policies 148 are possible.
For instance, the information management policies 148 can also
include one or more audit or security policies. An audit policy is
a set of preferences, rules and/or criteria that protect sensitive
data in the information management system 100. For example, an
audit policy may define "sensitive objects" as files or objects
that contain particular keywords (e.g. "confidential," or
"privileged") and/or are associated with particular keywords (e.g.,
in metadata) or particular flags (e.g., in metadata identifying a
document or email as personal, confidential, etc.).
An audit policy may further specify rules for handling sensitive
objects. As an example, an audit policy may require that a reviewer
approve the transfer of any sensitive objects to a cloud storage
site, and that if approval is denied for a particular sensitive
object, the sensitive object should be transferred to a local
storage device 104 instead. To facilitate this approval, the audit
policy may further specify how a secondary storage computing device
106 or other system component should notify a reviewer that a
sensitive object is slated for transfer.
In some implementations, the information management policies 148
may include one or more provisioning policies. A provisioning
policy can include a set of preferences, priorities, rules, and/or
criteria that specify how clients 102 (or groups thereof) may
utilize system resources, such as available storage on cloud
storage and/or network bandwidth. A provisioning policy specifies,
for example, data quotas for particular client computing devices
102 (e.g. a number of gigabytes that can be stored monthly,
quarterly or annually). The storage manager 140 or other components
may enforce the provisioning policy. For instance, the media agents
144 may enforce the policy when transferring data to secondary
storage devices 108. If a client computing device 102 exceeds a
quota, a budget for the client computing device 102 (or associated
department) is adjusted accordingly or an alert may trigger.
While the above types of information management policies 148 have
been described as separate policies, one or more of these can be
generally combined into a single information management policy 148.
For instance, a storage policy may also include or otherwise be
associated with one or more scheduling, audit, or provisioning
policies. Moreover, while storage policies are typically associated
with moving and storing data, other policies may be associated with
other types of information management operations. The following is
a non-exhaustive list of items the information management policies
148 may specify: schedules or other timing information, e.g.,
specifying when and/or how often to perform information management
operations; the type of data storage 116 and/or data storage format
(e.g., snapshot, backup, archive, HSM, etc.); a location or a class
or quality of storage for storing secondary copies 116 (e.g., one
or more particular secondary storage devices 108); preferences
regarding whether and how to encrypt, compress, deduplicate, or
otherwise modify or transform secondary copies 116; which system
components and/or network pathways (e.g., preferred media agents
144) should be used to perform secondary storage operations;
resource allocation between different computing devices or other
system components used in performing information management
operations (e.g., bandwidth allocation, available storage capacity,
etc.); whether and how to synchronize or otherwise distribute files
or other data objects across multiple computing devices or hosted
services; and retention information specifying the length of time
primary data 112 and/or secondary copies 116 should be retained,
e.g., in a particular class or tier of storage devices, or within
the information management system 100.
Policies can additionally specify or depend on a variety of
historical or current criteria that may be used to determine which
rules to apply to a particular data object, system component, or
information management operation, such as: frequency with which
primary data 112 or a data storage 116 of a data object or metadata
has been or is predicted to be used, accessed, or modified;
time-related factors (e.g., aging information such as time since
the creation or modification of a data object); deduplication
information (e.g., hashes, data blocks, deduplication block size,
deduplication efficiency or other metrics); an estimated or
historic usage or cost associated with different components (e.g.,
with secondary storage devices 108); the identity of users,
applications 110, client computing devices 102 and/or other
computing devices that created, accessed, modified, or otherwise
utilized primary data 112 or secondary copies 116; a relative
sensitivity (e.g., confidentiality) of a data object, e.g., as
determined by its content and/or metadata; the current or
historical storage capacity of various storage devices; the current
or historical network capacity of network pathways connecting
various components within the storage operation cell; access
control lists or other security information; and the content of a
particular data object (e.g., its textual content) or of metadata
associated with the data object. Exemplary Storage Policy and
Secondary Storage Operations
FIG. 1E shows a data flow data diagram depicting performance of
storage operations by an embodiment of an information management
system 100, according to an exemplary data storage policy 148A. The
information management system 100 includes a storage manger 140, a
client computing device 102 having a file system data agent 142A
and an email data agent 142B residing thereon, a primary storage
device 104, two media agents 144A, 144B, and two secondary storage
devices 108A, 108B: a disk library 108A and a tape library 108B. As
shown, the primary storage device 104 includes primary data 112A,
1126 associated with a file system sub-client and an email
sub-client, respectively.
As indicated by the dashed box, the second media agent 144B and the
tape library 108B are "off-site", and may therefore be remotely
located from the other components in the information management
system 100 (e.g., in a different city, office building, etc.). In
this manner, information stored on the tape library 1086 may
provide protection in the event of a disaster or other failure.
The file system sub-client and its associated primary data 112A in
certain embodiments generally comprise information generated by the
file system and/or operating system of the client computing device
102, and can include, for example, file system data (e.g., regular
files, file tables, mount points, etc.), operating system data
(e.g., registries, event logs, etc.), and the like. The e-mail
sub-client, on the other hand, and its associated primary data
112B, include data generated by an e-mail client application
operating on the client computing device 102, and can include
mailbox information, folder information, emails, attachments,
associated database information, and the like. As described above,
the sub-clients can be logical containers, and the data included in
the corresponding primary data 112A, 112B may or may not be stored
contiguously.
The exemplary storage policy 148A includes a backup copy rule set
160, a disaster recovery copy rule set 162, and a compliance copy
rule set 164. The backup copy rule set 160 specifies that it is
associated with a file system sub-client 166 and an email
sub-client 168. Each of these sub-clients 166, 168 are associated
with the particular client computing device 102. The backup copy
rule set 160 further specifies that the backup operation will be
written to the disk library 108A, and designates a particular media
agent 144A to convey the data to the disk library 108A. Finally,
the backup copy rule set 160 specifies that backup copies created
according to the rule set 160 are scheduled to be generated on an
hourly basis and to be retained for 30 days. In some other
embodiments, scheduling information is not included in the storage
policy 148A, and is instead specified by a separate scheduling
policy.
The disaster recovery copy rule set 162 is associated with the same
two sub-clients 166, 168. However, the disaster recovery copy rule
set 162 is associated with the tape library 108B, unlike the backup
copy rule set 160. Moreover, the disaster recovery copy rule set
162 specifies that a different media agent 144B than the media
agent 144A associated with the backup copy rule set 160 will be
used to convey the data to the tape library 108B. As indicated,
disaster recovery copies created according to the rule set 162 will
be retained for 60 days, and will be generated on a daily basis.
Disaster recovery copies generated according to the disaster
recovery copy rule set 162 can provide protection in the event of a
disaster or other data-loss event that would affect the backup copy
116A maintained on the disk library 108A.
The compliance copy rule set 164 is only associated with the email
sub-client 166, and not the file system sub-client 168. Compliance
copies generated according to the compliance copy rule set 164 will
therefore not include primary data 112A from the file system
sub-client 166. For instance, the organization may be under an
obligation to store maintain copies of email data for a particular
period of time (e.g., 10 years) to comply with state or federal
regulations, while similar regulations do not apply to the file
system data. The compliance copy rule set 164 is associated with
the same tape library 108B and media agent 144B as the disaster
recovery copy rule set 162, although a different storage device or
media agent could be used in other embodiments. Finally, the
compliance copy rule set 164 specifies that copies generated under
the compliance copy rule set 164 will be retained for 10 years, and
will be generated on a quarterly basis.
At step 1, the storage manager 140 initiates a backup operation
according to the backup copy rule set 160. For instance, a
scheduling service running on the storage manager 140 accesses
scheduling information from the backup copy rule set 160 or a
separate scheduling policy associated with the client computing
device 102, and initiates a backup copy operation on an hourly
basis. Thus, at the scheduled time slot the storage manager 140
sends instructions to the client computing device 102 to begin the
backup operation.
At step 2, the file system data agent 142A and the email data agent
142B residing on the client computing device 102 respond to the
instructions received from the storage manager 140 by accessing and
processing the primary data 112A, 112B involved in the copy
operation from the primary storage device 104. Because the
operation is a backup copy operation, the data agent(s) 142A, 142B
may format the data into a backup format or otherwise process the
data.
At step 3, the client computing device 102 communicates the
retrieved, processed data to the first media agent 144A, as
directed by the storage manager 140, according to the backup copy
rule set 160. In some other embodiments, the information management
system 100 may implement a load-balancing, availability-based, or
other appropriate algorithm to select from the available set of
media agents 144A, 144B. Regardless of the manner the media agent
144A is selected, the storage manager 140 may further keep a record
in the storage manager database 140 of the association between the
selected media agent 144A and the client computing device 102
and/or between the selected media agent 144A and the backup copy
116A.
The target media agent 144A receives the data from the client
computing device 102, and at step 4 conveys the data to the disk
library 108A to create the backup copy 116A, again at the direction
of the storage manager 140 and according to the backup copy rule
set 160. The secondary storage device 108A can be selected in other
ways. For instance, the media agent 144A may have a dedicated
association with a particular secondary storage device(s), or the
storage manager 140 or media agent 144A may select from a plurality
of secondary storage devices, e.g., according to availability,
using one of the techniques described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,246,207,
which is incorporated by reference herein.
The media agent 144A can also update its index 153 to include data
and/or metadata related to the backup copy 116A, such as
information indicating where the backup copy 116A resides on the
disk library 108A, data and metadata for cache retrieval, etc.
After the 30 day retention period expires, the storage manager 140
instructs the media agent 144A to delete the backup copy 116A from
the disk library 108A.
At step 5, the storage manager 140 initiates the creation of a
disaster recovery copy 1166 according to the disaster recovery copy
rule set 162. For instance, at step 6, based on instructions
received from the storage manager 140 at step 5, the specified
media agent 144B retrieves the most recent backup copy 116A from
the disk library 108A.
At step 7, again at the direction of the storage manager 140 and as
specified in the disaster recovery copy rule set 162, the media
agent 144B uses the retrieved data to create a disaster recovery
copy 116B on the tape library 108B. In some cases, the disaster
recovery copy 1166 is a direct, mirror copy of the backup copy
116A, and remains in the backup format. In other embodiments, the
disaster recovery copy 116C may be generated in some other manner,
such as by using the primary data 112A, 1126 from the storage
device 104 as source data. The disaster recovery copy operation is
initiated once a day and the disaster recovery copies 116A are
deleted after 60 days.
At step 8, the storage manager 140 initiates the creation of a
compliance copy 116C, according to the compliance copy rule set
164. For instance, the storage manager 140 instructs the media
agent 144B to create the compliance copy 116C on the tape library
108B at step 9, as specified in the compliance copy rule set 164.
In the example, the compliance copy 116C is generated using the
disaster recovery copy 116B. In other embodiments, the compliance
copy 116C is instead generated using either the primary data 112B
corresponding to the email sub-client or using the backup copy 116A
from the disk library 108A as source data. As specified, compliance
copies 116C are created quarterly, and are deleted after ten
years.
While not shown in FIG. 1E, at some later point in time, a restore
operation can be initiated involving one or more of the secondary
copies 116A, 116B, 116C. As one example, a user may manually
initiate a restore of the backup copy 116A by interacting with the
user interface 158 of the storage manager 140. The storage manager
140 then accesses data in its index 150 (and/or the respective
storage policy 148A) associated with the selected backup copy 116A
to identify the appropriate media agent 144A and/or secondary
storage device 116A.
In other cases, a media agent may be selected for use in the
restore operation based on a load balancing algorithm, an
availability based algorithm, or other criteria. The selected media
agent 144A retrieves the data from the disk library 108A. For
instance, the media agent 144A may access its index 153 to identify
a location of the backup copy 116A on the disk library 108A, or may
access location information residing on the disk 108A itself.
When the backup copy 116A was recently created or accessed, the
media agent 144A accesses a cached version of the backup copy 116A
residing in the media agent index 153, without having to access the
disk library 108A for some or all of the data. Once it has
retrieved the backup copy 116A, the media agent 144A communicates
the data to the source client computing device 102. Upon receipt,
the file system data agent 142A and the email data agent 142B may
unpackage (e.g., restore from a backup format to the native
application format) the data in the backup copy 116A and restore
the unpackaged data to the primary storage device 104.
Exemplary Data storage Formatting
The formatting and structure of secondary copies 116 can vary,
depending on the embodiment. In some cases, secondary copies 116
are formatted as a series of logical data units or "chunks" (e.g.,
512 MB, 1 GB, 2 GB, 4 GB, or 8 GB chunks). This can facilitate
efficient communication and writing to secondary storage devices
108, e.g., according to resource availability. For example, a
single data storage 116 may be written on a chunk-by-chunk basis to
a single secondary storage device 108 or across multiple secondary
storage devices 108. In some cases, users can select different
chunk sizes, e.g., to improve throughput to tape storage
devices.
Generally, each chunk can include a header and a payload. The
payload can include files (or other data units) or subsets thereof
included in the chunk, whereas the chunk header generally includes
metadata relating to the chunk, some or all of which may be derived
from the payload. For example, during a data storage operation, the
media agent 144, storage manager 140, or other component may divide
the associated files into chunks and generate headers for each
chunk by processing the constituent files.
The headers can include a variety of information such as file
identifier(s), volume(s), offset(s), or other information
associated with the payload data items, a chunk sequence number,
etc. Importantly, in addition to being stored with the data storage
116 on the secondary storage device 108, the chunk headers 300 can
also be stored to the index 153 of the associated media agent(s)
144 and/or the storage manager index 150. This is useful in some
cases for providing faster processing of secondary copies 116
during restores or other operations. In some cases, once a chunk is
successfully transferred to a secondary storage device 108, the
secondary storage device 108 returns an indication of receipt,
e.g., to the media agent 144 and/or storage manager 140, which may
update their respective indexes 150, 153 accordingly.
During restore, chunks may be processed (e.g., by the media agent
144) according to the information in the chunk header to reassemble
the files. Additional information relating to chunks can be found
in U.S. Pat. No. 8,156,086, which is incorporated by reference
herein.
System Overview
The systems and methods described with respect to FIGS. 1A-1E can
be used for protecting data storage data. For instance, the system
of FIG. 1C applies backup policies and backs up data from the
client computing device 102 in the data storage system 100. In
other embodiments, data storage systems monitor the performance of
data storage operations on a granular level and compile the
information for presenting to a user. Systems and methods are
described herein monitor the performance of storage operations.
Further examples of systems and methods to 1) measure time of
execution for individual granular stages of the storage operation
and in response to the monitoring results, automatically adjust
parameters to optimize performance; and 2) perform a performance
test by simulating the data storage operation, but not actually
write the data to the secondary storage medium are described below
with respect to FIGS. 2-4.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an arrangement of resources
that form an example information management cell 750. According to
certain embodiments, some or all of the components of the
information management cell 750 of FIG. 2 may have the same or
similar structure and/or functionality as the similarly named
components of FIG. 1D.
As shown, the information management cell 750 can include a storage
or information manager 701, one or more media agents 205, one or
more secondary storage devices 215, one or more client computing
devices 285, and one or more primary storage devices 290.
The storage or information manager 701 may be a software module or
other application that coordinates and/or controls storage
operations performed by one or more information management cells
750, similar to that described above for the storage or information
manager 140 and the information management cell of FIG. 1D. In this
manner, the storage or information manager 701 may act as a
generally central control component with respect to the other
components in the information management cell 750. As shown by the
dashed lines, the storage or information manager 701 may
communicate with and/or control some or all elements of the
information management cell 750, such as the media agents 205 and
client computing devices 285, to initiate, coordinate, manage
and/or simulate data storage operations. The storage or information
manager 701 comprises a performance monitoring module 710 which,
when executed, simulates or coordinates the simulation of secondary
storage operations, such as for example, backup operations, restore
operations, and the like, for the information management cell 750.
Moreover, as will be described, the performance monitoring module
710 can also provide granular metrics associated with secondary
storage operations and/or automatically calibrate operations based
on monitored performance. While the performance monitoring module
is shown as residing on the storage or information manager 701, in
some embodiments performance monitoring functionality is
advantageously distributed amongst other components in the system.
For instance, depending on the embodiment, performance monitoring
agents can execute on or form a part of one or more of the client
computing devices 285, one or more of the data agents 295, or one
or more of the media agents 205.
Simulated Data Storage Operation For Performance Monitoring
FIG. 3 illustrates a flow chart of an exemplary embodiment of a
process 1000 to simulate a data storage operation and measure the
performance characteristics (e.g., execution times, file size) of
one or more of the operation's individual steps. In an embodiment,
the performance monitoring module 710 implements the process 1000,
which is usable by the system of FIG. 2.
Beginning at block 1002, the process 1000 receives a selected
performance test including a selected data storage operation. In an
embodiment, a performance test is selected for execution by a user.
For instance, the interface module 261 and/or performance
monitoring module 710 of the storage manager or information manager
701 may provide a graphical user interface (GUI) that can be
accessed by an administrator or other user via a computing device
display. The GUI or other interface may provide a mechanism for the
user to initiate and configure a performance test. For instance,
the GUI may allow a user to select a particular data storage
operation or portions thereof for simulation. Moreover, the
interface may provide a user with the option to granularly monitor
the operation or portions thereof. In some cases, the user can
select which portions of the operation to monitor. Similarly, the
interface may allow the user to select portions of the data storage
operation for which the user would like granular reporting.
Moreover, the interface in some cases allows the user to enable
automatic calibration of the data storage operation. Automatic
calibration will be described in further detail with respect to
FIG. 4.
Thus, at block 1002, the user can select one or more performance
test options/settings on a display screen by interacting with the
GUI, or can enter such options through some other appropriate
interface. The user can further select which data storage operation
is to be simulated during the performance test. The simulated data
storage operation can be a data backup operation, a data restore
operation, or any other type of data storage operation, such as an
archive operation, hierarchical storage management operation, a
snapshot operation, a replication operation and the like.
At block 1004, the process 1000 receives a selected data set for
use in the simulated data storage operation. In an embodiment, the
user, e.g., through a GUI or other interface viewable at the client
computing device 285 (or other appropriate computing device)
selects a data set to use in the simulated data storage operation.
The selected data set can be one or more files, one or more
volumes, one or more databases, or the like. For instance, the
selected data set can be one or more sub-clients, which are
described above.
At block 1006, the process 1000 simulates the selected data storage
operation using the selected data set. In an embodiment illustrated
in FIG. 3, the selected data storage operation is a simulated
backup operation including the steps of scanning the backup data,
setting up the pipeline for implementing the backup, sending the
data over a LAN or other network (e.g. to a media agent), and
simulating the writing of the backup data to secondary storage,
e.g., by writing the data to a buffer. For the exemplary data
backup operation, block 1006 comprises sub-blocks 1006A-1006D
representing constituent steps in the backup operation, and which
are described in further detail below.
In various embodiments, the simulated backup operation could be one
of a full backup, a differential backup, an incremental backup, a
mirror backup, or the like, and depending on the type of backup
operation, the operation could comprise a different set of
constituent operational steps.
At block 1006A, the process 1000 scans the selected data set on the
client computing device 285. In an embodiment, the process 1000
scans the selected data using either a change journal scan or a
classic scan. A change journal scan scans the files in the selected
data set that have changed since the previous backup. A classic
scan scans all of the files in the selected data set, and in an
embodiment, the FAT volumes. In an embodiment, the change journal
scan is set as the default scan process and the classic scan can be
selected by the user during the configuration of the simulated
backup operation (e.g., by interacting with the GUI). In one
configuration, during the scan at block 1006A, the process 1000
instructs an appropriate data agent 295 residing on the target
client computing device 285 to read and/or package the selected
data set for the simulated backup operation. The data agent 295
reads the selected data and may place the selected data into a
collection file or other file used to store the data for the backup
operation.
At block 1006A the process 1000 further measures the execution time
of the data scan step. In an embodiment, the scan time is stored in
the management database 260. In an embodiment, the data agent 295
gathers this information and forwards it to the storage or
information manager 701.
At block 1006B, the process 1000 sets up a data pipeline for the
backup operation, to convey the data from primary storage device
290 associated with the client computing device 285 to secondary
storage devices 215. In an embodiment, the pipeline is a set of
data processing elements connected in series, so that the output of
one element is the input of the next one. For instance, at block
1006B the process 1000 may select an appropriate media agent 205
for coordinating the delivery of the data set to secondary storage,
and block 1006 may involve establishing a connection between the
selected media agent 205 and the client computing device 285,
creating and storing any appropriate metadata associated with the
connection, communicating with the storage or information manager
701, etc. The process 1000 further measures the execution time to
set up the data pipeline. In an embodiment, the pipeline setup time
is stored in the management database 260.
At block 1006C, the process 1000 instructs the data agent 295 to
send the data from the collection file or other file where the
scanned data is stored to the media agent 205 through the pipeline.
In some other embodiments, the media agent 205 coordinates the
delivery (or simulated delivery) of the backup data set to
secondary storage devices 215, but the data does not actually
travel through the media agent itself. Rather, a direct connection
is established between the client and the secondary storage device
215 (or simulated secondary storage device 215) for delivering the
data. At block 1006C the process 1000 further measures the
execution time to send the data to the media agent 205. In an
embodiment, the data send time is stored in the management database
260.
At block 1006D, the process 1000 simulates the writing of the
backup data to secondary storage. As one example method of
performing the simulation, the process 1000 instructs the media
agent 205 to copy the backup data set to a buffer data structure.
In an embodiment, the buffer resides in the media agent 205. In
another embodiment, the process 1000 instructs the media agent 205
to perform a no operation (NOP) or series of NOP's, where no data
is actually written out to secondary storage device. Regardless of
the simulation method, the time it takes to perform the simulation
can be substantially equal to, equal to, or approximately equal to
the time it would have actually taken to write the data to the
target secondary storage device(s) 215. Thus, the process 1000
further measures the execution time for performing the simulated
write, e.g., to copy the data identified for backup to the buffer
or to perform the NOP's. In an embodiment, the copy time is stored
in the management database 260.
In some other embodiments, the performance monitoring techniques
described herein can be applied to actual, non-simulated data
storage operations. For instance, in a non-simulated backup
operation, the media agent 205 would actually copy or coordinate
the copying of the data identified for backup to the target
secondary storage devices 215.
If another data storage operation is selected for execution and
received by the process 1000 at block 1002, the blocks 1006A-1006D
may be different, the number of individual steps may increase, or
the number of individual steps may decrease, according to the
selected data storage operation. In another embodiment, the process
1000 at block 1006 performs a simulated backup operation which is
similar to the backup operation as discussed above, except that in
the simulated backup operation the data is copied to a buffer, not
the secondary storage device 215. In yet another embodiment, the
process 1000 at block 1006 performs a simulated restore operation
which is similar to the restore operation as discussed above except
in the simulated restore operation the data is copied to a buffer,
not the primary storage device 290.
At block 1008, the process 1000 displays or otherwise provides the
simulated storage operation metrics, such as the execution times of
the individual operation steps. For example, the process 1000
displays the execution times on a display associated with the
client computing device 285 via the GUI. Or the process 1000 may
write the monitored storage operation metrics to a results file for
later user-access. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 3, the
results provided by the process 1000 at block 1008 may include one
or more of the scan time, the pipeline setup time, the send time,
and the copy time (or simulated copy time). Advantageously, the
user would be able to review the metrics and determine where
bottlenecks in the simulated data storage process occur, identify
storage operation parameters or aspects of the data storage system
to change, such as different options associated with the particular
storage operation, different types or amounts of secondary media to
deploy, and the like to improve system performance. In this manner,
the user can troubleshoot data storage system performance in a cost
effective manner. For instance, the simulated data storage
operation provides a proof of concept before actually purchasing
and setting up additional secondary storage media.
As indicated, in other embodiments, the execution times of each
individual step of an actual, non-simulated data storage operation
can be measured and stored in a manner similar to the process 1000,
but instead of writing the data to a buffer or performing a NOP,
the process writes the data to the secondary storage device 215 for
backups, writes the data to the primary storage device 290 for
restores, or the like.
Granular Performance Monitoring With Automatic Configuration
Adjustment
FIG. 4 illustrates a flow chart of an exemplary embodiment of a
process 2000 to automatically calibrate storage operation
performance. In an embodiment, the performance monitoring module
710 comprises the process 2000, which is usable by the system of
FIG. 2.
In one embodiment, the process 2000 simulates a data storage
operation and measures the execution times of one or more of the
individual constituent steps of the operation. Moreover, where
different settings/options associated with performance of the
storage operation are available, the process 2000 may adjust the
settings and iteratively perform the storage operation with
different settings. The process 2000 further compares execution
times or other metrics associated with performance of the storage
operation at each iteration, using the different settings. In some
embodiments, the process 2000 also automatically identifies and/or
selects particular settings, e.g., settings that optimize the
simulated storage operation performance. In an embodiment, the
process 2000 selects the options that minimize the overall
execution time for the simulated storage operation. In another
embodiment, the selected options are saved as the default settings
for later performance of an actual, non-simulated data storage
operation.
Beginning at block 2002, the process 2000 receives a selected
performance test including a selected data operation for
simulation. Similar to block 1002 of FIG. 3, the user selects the
performance test and the data storage operation for simulation,
e.g., through a GUI. The simulated data storage operation comprises
a data backup operation, a data restore operation, or any other
type of secondary operation, such as an archive operation,
hierarchical storage management operation, a snapshot operation, a
replication operation and the like.
At block 2004, the process 2000 receives a selected data set for
use in the simulated data storage operation. Similar to block 1004
of FIG. 3, the user can select the data set through a GUI. The
selected data set can be one or more files, one or more volumes,
one or more databases, or the like, and can include one or more
sub-clients.
At block 2005, the process 2000 applies the settings for use in the
current iteration of the simulated (or actual) storage operation.
Initially, in one embodiment, the selected storage options can be
the default settings for the selected data storage operation. For
each successive iteration, the process changes at least one the
settings/options. Thus, as the process 2000 iteratively performs
the operation with the different settings and measures the
performance at each iteration, the process 2000 will rotate through
some or all of the available settings/options associated with the
storage operation at block 2005, as discussed further below.
At block 2006, the process 2000 simulates the selected data storage
operation using the selected data set (e.g., one or more
sub-clients). In one embodiment, the simulated storage operation is
a backup operation, and block 2006 is similar to block 1006,
including blocks 1006A (scan data), 1006B (setup pipeline), 1006C
(send data), 1006D (copy data) of FIG. 3. Just as in block 1006 for
the process 1000, the process 2000 may granularly monitor the
performance of the storage operation and its constituent steps. For
instance, for each iteration, the process 2000 at block 2006 may
measure and store the execution times or other metrics associated
with the performance of the storage operation and/or its
constituent steps. In an embodiment, the execution times are stored
in the management database 260.
At block 2008, the process 2000 determines whether or not to adjust
one or more other settings and perform another iteration of the
data storage operation. For instance, if there are options or
settings which have not been tried, the process 2000 may set or
select the untried options or settings and move to block 2005. For
example, when the selected storage operation is a backup operation,
there are, for certain embodiments, two options that can be used
for the scan data step: the change journal scan and the classic
data scan. If the change journal scan option was selected as the
default setting for backup data operations, the process 2000 has
already measured the execution time for the change journal scan
while simulating the data storage operation at block 2006. At block
2008, the process 2000 determines that another scan option, the
classic data scan, is available and the execution time for that
option has not been measured. From block 2008, the process 2000
moves to block 2005, where the process 2000 selects the classic
data scan option. The process 2000 then moves to block 2006, where
the backup operation is simulated using the classic data scan
option and the execution time for the classic data scan is measured
and stored.
In other embodiments, the process 2000 at block 2008 reviews the
performance of the storage operation and determines which settings
to change based on the review. While a variety of algorithms may be
used for determining the storage operation settings, in some
embodiments the storage operation or one or more of the constituent
steps (e.g., scan, pipeline setup, etc.) of the storage operation
may have an associated performance threshold (e.g., maximum
acceptable execution time). If the storage operation or the
particular constituent step does not satisfy the performance
threshold for the most recent iteration (e.g., executes in greater
than the maximum execution time), one or more settings are changed
and a further iteration is performed at block 2005. For instance,
if a data scan of a backup operation executes in greater than a
maximum allotted time, settings associated with the scan operation
are adjusted, and the storage operation is run again at blocks
2005-2006. If, on the other hand, a scan or other constituent step
in the data storage operation does meet the performance threshold,
settings associated with that step are left unchanged.
If, at block 2008, the process 2000 determines that no further
iterations of the data storage operation will be performed, the
process moves to block 2010. For instance, in one embodiment, if
there are no additional, untried options or variations in the
simulated data storage operation, the process moves to block 2010.
Or, in another embodiment, if the most recent iteration of the
storage operation or the individual steps thereof meet a particular
set of performance criteria (e.g., execution time), the process
2000 at block 2008 may determine that no further iterations are
necessary.
At block 2010, the process 2000 in some embodiments analyzes the
measured performance for the iterations of the performed storage
operation. For instance, the process 2000 at block 2010 may
compares the execution times associated with each iteration of the
storage operation. The comparison can be on a granular basis as
well, where execution times or other metrics associated with
individual steps in the simulated data storage operation are
compared.
At block 2012, based on the results of the iteratively performed
data storage operations, the process 2000 automatically selects and
stores a settings profile associated with the simulated data
storage operation. For instance, the settings profile may be
selected based on the performance of the storage operation for each
iteration, e.g., to optimize the performance of the data storage
operation. For example, the stored settings profile defines a set
of options/settings are used when performing an actual,
non-simulated data storage operation. In one embodiment, the
parameters are the options associated with the storage operation
steps that minimize the overall execution time of the selected data
storage operation.
Terminology
Conditional language, such as, among others, "can," "could,"
"might," or "may," unless specifically stated otherwise, or
otherwise understood within the context as used, is generally
intended to convey that certain embodiments include, while other
embodiments do not include, certain features, elements and/or
steps. Thus, such conditional language is not generally intended to
imply that features, elements and/or steps are in any way required
for one or more embodiments or that one or more embodiments
necessarily include logic for deciding, with or without user input
or prompting, whether these features, elements and/or steps are
included or are to be performed in any particular embodiment.
Depending on the embodiment, certain acts, events, or functions of
any of the algorithms described herein can be performed in a
different sequence, can be added, merged, or left out all together
(e.g., not all described acts or events are necessary for the
practice of the algorithms). Moreover, in certain embodiments, acts
or events can be performed concurrently, e.g., through
multi-threaded processing, interrupt processing, or multiple
processors or processor cores or on other parallel architectures,
rather than sequentially.
Systems and modules described herein may comprise software,
firmware, hardware, or any combination(s) of software, firmware, or
hardware suitable for the purposes described herein. Software and
other modules may reside on servers, workstations, personal
computers, computerized tablets, PDAs, and other devices suitable
for the purposes described herein. Software and other modules may
be accessible via local memory, via a network, via a browser, or
via other means suitable for the purposes described herein. Data
structures described herein may comprise computer files, variables,
programming arrays, programming structures, or any electronic
information storage schemes or methods, or any combinations
thereof, suitable for the purposes described herein. User interface
elements described herein may comprise elements from graphical user
interfaces, command line interfaces, and other suitable
interfaces.
Further, the processing of the various components of the
illustrated systems can be distributed across multiple machines,
networks, and other computing resources. In addition, two or more
components of a system can be combined into fewer components.
Various components of the illustrated systems can be implemented in
one or more virtual machines, rather than in dedicated computer
hardware systems. Likewise, the data repositories shown can
represent physical and/or logical data storage, including, for
example, storage area networks or other distributed storage
systems. Moreover, in some embodiments the connections between the
components shown represent possible paths of data flow, rather than
actual connections between hardware. While some examples of
possible connections are shown, any of the subset of the components
shown can communicate with any other subset of components in
various implementations.
Embodiments are also described above with reference to flow chart
illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems)
and computer program products. Each block of the flow chart
illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in
the flow chart illustrations and/or block diagrams, may be
implemented by computer program instructions. Such instructions may
be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special
purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus
to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via
the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing
apparatus, create means for implementing the acts specified in the
flow chart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
These computer program instructions may also be stored in a
computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other
programmable data processing apparatus to operate in a particular
manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable
memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction
means which implement the acts specified in the flow chart and/or
block diagram block or blocks. The computer program instructions
may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data
processing apparatus to cause a series of operations to be
performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to
produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions
which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus
provide steps for implementing the acts specified in the flow chart
and/or block diagram block or blocks.
While certain embodiments have been described, these embodiments
have been presented by way of example only, and are not intended to
limit the scope of the disclosure. Indeed, the novel methods and
systems described herein may be embodied in a variety of other
forms; furthermore, various omissions, substitutions and changes in
the form of the described methods and systems may be made without
departing from the spirit of the disclosure.
* * * * *
References